Home / South America / Chile / CANDELARIA

CANDELARIA

Gas power plant in O'Higgins, Chile. Approximate location -34.0339, -70.6138.

GasO'HigginsChile

CANDELARIA is a 254 MW gas power station in O'Higgins, Chile. It is operated by COLBUN S.A.. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 285,963 homes (estimated). It ranks #23 of 315 Chile power plants by installed capacity. In context, gas supplies about 15.3% of Chile's electricity; the national grid averages 289 gCO₂/kWh (66.4% low-carbon) (2025).

254MW installed capacity
285,963homes powered (est.)

Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id CHL0000104.

~400,350 t CO₂/yr (estimated) — in everyday terms

This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:

93,322passenger cars driven for a year
52,210homes' yearly energy use
6,672,492tree seedlings grown 10 years to absorb it

Estimated, not measured: from installed capacity at a typical 45% load factor × a typical gas emission factor (~400 g CO₂/kWh, IPCC AR5 / US EIA). Actual emissions depend on plant efficiency and running hours.Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies.

Capacity vs largest gas plants in Chile

NEHUENCO: 875 MW875NEHUENCOATACAMA (CC1-CC2): 768 MW768ATACAMA (C…SAN ISIDRO II: 406 MW406SAN ISIDRO…SAN ISIDRO I: 379 MW379SAN ISIDRO…CANDELARIA: 254 MW254CANDELARIATALTAL: 244 MW244TALTALCORONEL: 47 MW47CORONELNEWEN: 14 MW14NEWEN

Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).

Owner

Operated by COLBUN S.A.. All plants by this company →

Local climate & thermal context

This gas plant burns natural gas in a turbine — often in a combined-cycle setup — to generate electricity. It sits in a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 34.0°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.

14.6°Cannual mean temp
1,459heating degree-days (base 18°C)
201cooling degree-days (base 18°C)
1,020 melevation

Monthly mean temperature

J: 21 °CJF: 20 °CFM: 18 °CMA: 15 °CAM: 11 °CMJ: 9 °CJJ: 9 °CJA: 10 °CAS: 11 °CSO: 14 °CON: 17 °CND: 19 °CD21 °C

Heating degree-days here run 41% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.

Climate heat-demand index: 33/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.

In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.

A gas turbine here also runs ~0% below its ISO (15°C) rating at this annual mean (typical CCGT curve, estimate).

Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.

How it compares & nearby plants

The #5 largest gas power plant of 11 in Chile by capacity.

Chile has 11 gas power plants in this dataset, together about 2,998 MW of capacity.

Nearby power plants

Location

Coordinates -34.0339, -70.6138 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.

Built from open public data; no personal information. Operate this site? Request a correction or removal.