Six data centers totaling 1,420 MW left on a waiting list in Chile due to lack of transmission capacity

Having land, financing and customers is no longer enough to build a data center in central Chile. At least six connection requests from data centers, totaling 1,420 MW, received unfavorable responses from the National Electricity Coordinator (CEN) and were placed on a waiting list because the substations they wanted to connect to have no spare capacity, La Tercera reported on November 7, citing letters from the Coordinator and the industry group Transmisoras de Chile.

That figure is four times the power currently drawn by the roughly seven data centers in operation on the CEN's list, which together require about 350 MW and are concentrated in Quilicura. The 1,420 MW is requested capacity, not actual consumption, and none of the projects has announced a final cancellation.

The list published by La Tercera and Redimin shows two waves of rejections. In 2025, connections were denied in Buin-Maipo and Colina-Chicureo; in 2026, in Tiltil-Polpaico and Lampa. The largest project is DC SC2, at 500 MW, which developer RTB Energy asked to connect at the 500 kV Polpaico substation and which was put on hold "with no room for new connections".

Source: National Electricity Coordinator, via La Tercera and Redimin (November 7, 2026). Projects with disclosed capacity add up to 1,020 MW; the remaining 400 MW would correspond to the two Campus Norte stages, whose breakdown was not published.

Other cases are also in limbo. Santiago Chile 4, a 150 MW project in Quilicura, and Curauma Phase 2, in the Valparaíso Region, are waiting for transmission works that were postponed. Data Center Sur, a 120 MW project in Puente Alto, was authorized with an overload warning and possible consumption limits, and its request was later withdrawn without a stated reason.

The problem is timing. A data center can be planned and built in a few years, while a transmission project takes five to seven years to go through planning, tendering, permitting and construction. "Data centers have to connect to substations and they can't," summed up Javier Tapia, executive director of Transmisoras de Chile, in the interview with La Tercera.

According to the industry group, only about 30% of the transmission works in its assessment are progressing on schedule, due to permitting delays and disputes with landowners. Tapia also said the expansion plan "falls short" and that the price cap set by the National Energy Commission (CNE) for some tenders "is out of line with the market", leaving some processes without bidders.

A University of Chile study commissioned by the group estimated a couple of years ago that about US$2 billion is needed to bring the grid up to date, mainly in zonal transmission, which carries power from the backbone system to cities. For reference, the Coordinator has just awarded 17 transmission projects worth US$475 million, concentrated in Maule and Ñuble.

The pressure comes from artificial intelligence and the cloud. The DC SC2 request alone exceeds all the data center capacity connected in Chile between 2020 and May 2026, which according to DCD totaled about 407 MW, as reported by TransMedia. That project estimated consumption of about 4 TWh a year and commercial operation in September 2030.

Long-term planning already factors in this jump. In the electricity demand projection to 2046, data centers appear alongside mining and green hydrogen among the drivers that could nearly double the country's consumption.

Some projects have found specific solutions. The Panel of Experts, for example, backed the Coordinator in the Huechuraba data center case, which will connect with a single authorization. But the industry warns that the lack of capacity repeats in Lampa, Colina, Tiltil and Pudahuel, precisely the municipalities with large plots of land near Santiago.

The interview also reviewed service quality. The SAIDI index, which measures the average hours without power per customer per year, was 13.58 hours in 2023, jumped to 27.6 hours in 2024 and fell to 20.91 hours in 2025, according to the figures cited by La Tercera. "This index is extremely high in Chile," said Tapia, who mentioned towns that depend on a single line, such as Chañaral, and regions with frequent outages such as Antofagasta, Maule and Los Lagos.

The Chilean Data Center Association (ACHDC) did not confirm the Coordinator's figures, but acknowledged that "today the timelines of transmission works do not always match those of new projects". The Ministry of Energy has not publicly commented on the list.

Rejected projects can apply again when capacity frees up or when the substation and line expansions already included in the Coordinator's and the CNE's expansion plans come into service. Some developers are considering connecting directly to the 500 kV grid or building their own infrastructure, which are costlier and slower options.

• Waiting list: requests are recorded and reviewed when new capacity becomes available.
• Pending works: they depend on CNE and Coordinator tenders, which can take five to seven years to materialize.
• Location: projects could move to areas with more grid headroom, away from northern Santiago.
• Actual consumption: the 1,420 MW is requested capacity; real consumption will depend on how much gets built.

Redimin clarified that there is no confirmed figure for lost jobs or cancelled investments, and that the case is not directly linked to higher household electricity bills.

How many data centers were left without a grid connection?

At least six connection requests, totaling 1,420 MW, were rejected by the Electricity Coordinator and placed on a waiting list.

Where are those projects?

In Tiltil-Polpaico, Lampa, Colina-Chicureo and Buin-Maipo, in the Santiago Metropolitan Region.

Why were they rejected?

Because the substations they wanted to connect to have no room for new connections and the expansion works have not yet been built.

How much power do data centers in Chile use today?

The roughly seven in operation on the Coordinator's list require about 350 MW, according to Transmisoras de Chile.

Does this affect electricity bills?

Not directly. The sources do not link the rejections to higher household tariffs.