Enel's plan to exit from coal is advancing at an accelerated pace. Enel, through its subsidiary Enel Generacion Chile, announced on Monday that it has disconnected from the electricity grid and ceased operations of Group I of the Bocamina coal-fired power plant in the municipality of Coronel in Chile.
The 128 megawatt group I was disconnected from the electricity grid three years ahead of the date identified in Chile's national decarbonization plan. This milestone, which joins the closure of the Tarapacà coal-fired plant on December 31, 2019 and that of Enel's last coal-fired plant in Chile, the Bocamina group II, scheduled for May 2022, marks further progress in the decarbonisation of the mix of generation of Enel in Chile.
“We have reached an historic milestone for our presence in Chile,” commented Salvatore Bernabei, Head of Global Power Generation for the Enel group.
“We are moving forward – he added – at full speed towards an increasingly sustainable generation mix. By 2023, we will have both decommissioned the entire Chilean coal-fired fleet which still numbered 636 MW through 2019, and completed approximately 2,4 gigawatts of additional renewable capacity in the country. To date, of these targets, we have already decommissioned 286 megawatts of coal-fired generation with the closure of Tarapacà and group I of Bocamina and we have approximately 1,3 GW of renewables under construction. Similarly, with the closure of Group II of Bocamina, we expect to become the first power company to exit coal-fired generation in Chile."
Il Enel title it advanced by 2,4% to 8,48 euros on the Milan Stock Exchange in mid-morning when the Ftse Mib rose by 1%.
