According to Chile's national grid operator, the Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional (CEN), on 28 August 2026 the country had close to 5,000 MW of batteries on its system, 2,700 MW of them in commercial operation, and on 21 September the same CEN field-tested a battery able to form the grid. For anyone specifying switchboards and switchgear, the lesson is clear: battery energy storage is not bought by the MWh. The medium voltage switchgear panel at the collector, its short-circuit current, its arc protection and its switching duties decide whether the system connects and operates.
A lot, and it keeps growing. According to the CEN, as cited by Reporte Minero on 28 August 2026, the system held close to 5,000 MW of battery energy storage, or BESS: about 2,700 MW in commercial operation and the rest in testing.
The industry association ACERA measures it differently. ACERA's August bulletin, reported by the press on 1 October, puts storage in operation at over 3 GW. There is no contradiction with the CEN's 2,700 MW: one counts operation and the other counts commercial operation. Both point the same way.
Two Engie Chile projects show the scale. On 28 August 2026 Engie Chile announced the start of commercial operation of Los Loros, in Tierra Amarilla (Atacama), and of Libélula. Los Loros has 48 MW, 275.23 MWh in 63 lithium iron phosphate (LFP) containers and an investment of US$64 million; it connects to the 110/23 kV substation of the Los Loros solar park. Libélula adds 203 MW and 1,034 MWh in 208 lithium-ion containers, with five hours of discharge. Together they total 251 MW, and Engie reaches 663 MW of operating BESS in Chile, according to ESS News on 1 September 2026.
In battery energy storage, the container is the visible part. Behind each block sit an inverter, a step-up transformer and a medium voltage switchgear panel.
A grid-following inverter synchronizes to the voltage and frequency the grid already has and injects current. A grid-forming inverter (GFM) creates that reference itself. That is why it can operate on a weak grid and even sustain an electrical island.
On 21 September 2026, according to the CEN statement reproduced by Portal Minero, the CEN, Engie and Huawei ran the first GFM field pilot in Chile, on Power Block No. 1 at Los Loros. They tested controlled de-energization and energization, grid-connected GFM operation and the formation of an island that held stable voltage and frequency. The conversion equipment, from Huawei, was enabled for GFM with a firmware update. Rodrigo Espinoza, CEN Operations Manager, said the experience will help refine the test procedures and evaluation criteria. The statement gives neither the duration nor the block's MW.
The framework has been building for a while. The CEN published minimum requirement recommendations in October 2024 and the final requirements in April 2025. In May 2026 it published the Guide for the Verification of Grid Forming Inverter-Based Installations, focused on BESS (REDIMIN, 8 May 2026; Portal Minero says it was published for comment). Espinoza sees the pilot as a step toward taking to the field what was previously only studied in simulation and in the lab. He defines three stages: pre-connection testing (modeling, dynamic simulation and laboratory tests), field verification at commissioning and continuous monitoring in commercial operation.
One engineering clarification: in battery energy storage, the switchgear panel does not enable GFM. The converter control does. The panel reliably carries out the switching operations those tests demand.
A battery energy storage project asks for the same things as any industrial collector, with more switching and more data. The panel is specified to IEC 62271-200 (metal-enclosed switchgear for voltages above 1 kV and up to 52 kV), with a circuit breaker to IEC 62271-100 (vacuum in most MV panels) and common requirements in IEC 62271-1. Transformer and switchgear blocks are integrated into a skid or an e-house; for prefabricated medium and low voltage substations there is IEC 62271-202.
What is asked of the collector's medium voltage switchgear panel in battery energy storage
Two further clarifications. First: the panel is sized with the grid short-circuit current at the substation (Ik), not with the inverter's. Second, the IAC classification is read with three data points: current, time and accessible sides. A designation such as IAC AFLR 25 kA 1 s is only an example of the format, not a requirement. Saying “arc resistant” without those data is not specifying, and in a battery energy storage yard there are people working.
The pattern is not new. We saw it in inverter ride-through in North America: the performance the inverter promises is lost or preserved in the links around the inverter.
For battery energy storage, at the point of interconnection, IEEE Std 2800-2022 provides the framework for inverter-based resources connected to transmission systems (ride-through, frequency response) and IEEE 1547-2018 covers distributed resources. They are international references. Chile applies its own Technical Standard for Safety and Quality of Service and the CEN's requirements.
On the safety of battery energy storage, four names come up: UL 9540 (safety of energy storage systems), UL 9540A (a test method for thermal runaway propagation; it is a method, not a certification), NFPA 855 (installation of stationary energy storage, from the United States) and IEC 62933-5-2 (safety of grid-integrated BESS). In low voltage, the distribution and auxiliary switchboards in the containers are verified to IEC 61439-1 and -2: Icw, Ipk and forms of separation.
Specification lesson. Battery energy storage is not specified by the MWh. Define the collector's medium voltage switchgear panel by its Ik (kA, s), its IAC (kA, s, accessible faces), its operating mechanism and its communication for the switching duties the grid operator asks for, and the auxiliary switchboards with transfer and backup, before buying the containers. The switchgear and switchboard standards do not contain that requirement: if it is not in the specification with a number and an acceptance criterion, it will not be on site.
None of the above is a Colombian requirement. The Chilean and international standards are engineering references; in Colombia any installation is governed by RETIE, the Colombian electrical code. Do not carry over another country's requirement as if it were yours.
Within our scope, for battery energy storage: Industrias Ectricol S.A.S. manufactures in Funza IEC 62271-200 medium voltage switchgear panels with IAC classification, low voltage switchboards, including automatic transfer switchboards, and transformer substations and skids (voltage and current levels are confirmed per project), for utilities and renewable energy, mining or Oil & Gas. Certification and compliance belong to the assembly and its owner; we do not guarantee compliance with Chilean standards.
It is an installation that charges and discharges electrical energy with batteries. It consists of the batteries in containers, the PCS or inverter, a step-up transformer, a medium voltage switchgear panel, the control system and the auxiliary services (HVAC, fire suppression, backup power).
Grid-forming sets the voltage and frequency and can sustain an electrical island. Grid-following tracks the voltage and frequency the grid already has. At Los Loros, on 21 September 2026, the CEN and Engie field-tested GFM operation of a block, enabled with a firmware update.
In battery energy storage, a panel to IEC 62271-200, defined by its rated voltage and current, its short-time withstand current (kA, 1 s or 3 s) and its IAC classification (kA, time and accessible sides). It carries a motorized operating mechanism, signals and relays with communication according to the switching duties the operator asks for.
It contributes a limited fault current that changes with the control and the operating mode. That is why it affects protection sensitivity and selectivity, and its value is taken from the PCS manufacturer. The panel, even so, is sized with the grid short-circuit current.
As an international reference, UL 9540, UL 9540A (a test method, not a certification), NFPA 855 and IEC 62933-5-2. In Colombia, any installation is governed by RETIE; Chilean and US standards are not local requirements.
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