Electricity market prices per month in Chile 2019-2023

Chile’s electricity market price has been on an overall increasing trend in recent years, reaching 106.5 Chilean pesos per kilowatt-hour in April 2023 (based on a four-month average ending in this month). This was the highest figure since the beginning of 2019 and represented an increase of over 30 percent year-over-year.

The cost of electricity generation in Chile

In 2022, coal accounted for 23 percent of Chile’s gross electricity generation, while natural gas contributed another 19 percent. As such, the country’s electricity generation depends largely on fuel imports – for example, Chile's coal production plummeted over the last few years, recording a year-over-year decrease of around 90 percent. In turn, the price of electricity in the Andean country is highly dependent on international fuel prices and the valuation of the U.S. dollar in comparison to the local currency. Nevertheless, the share of renewables in Chile’s power mix – namely hydro and wind power – has been continuously increasing in recent years, pointing to a reduction in the country’s dependency on imported resources for electricity generation.

How does Chile’s electricity price compare with its Latin American neighbors?

In June 2023, Chile’s household electricity price was just above the average residential electricity price of Latin American countries at 0.19 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour. Chile’s residential electricity price was nearly double that of Mexico and over four times the price reported in Argentina in the same period. In terms of electricity for the commercial sector, Chile’s prices were below the Latin American regional average, and its electricity cost less than some South American countries, such as Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.