Oil power plant in Santiago Metropolitan, Chile. Approximate location -33.4184, -70.687.
OilSantiago MetropolitanChileCCGT · HRSG
NUEVA RENCA is a 379 MW oil power station in Santiago Metropolitan, Chile. It is operated by SOC. ELECTRICA SANTIAGO S.A.. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 285k homes (estimated). It ranks #26 of 336 Chile power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1997, it is around 29 years old — long-established. In context, oil supplies about 0.6% of Chile's electricity; the national grid averages 289 gCO₂/kWh (66.4% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id CHL0000102.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 operating-unit sum (location L100000406561); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 379 MW, NUEVA RENCA is well above the median oil plant in Chile (11 MW). Technically it is described as CCGT; combined-cycle with a heat-recovery steam generator (HRSG). Oil-fired plants burn heavy fuel oil or diesel, usually as peaking or backup capacity on islands and grids without gas pipelines; high fuel cost keeps their utilisation low.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by SOC. ELECTRICA SANTIAGO S.A..
This oil plant burns oil or diesel to drive turbines or reciprocating engines. It sits in a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 33.4°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 43% 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: 32/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
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.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a moderately corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C3 — Medium), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #1 largest oil power plant of 78 in Chile by capacity.
Chile has 78 oil power plants in this dataset, together about 3,578 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -33.4184, -70.687 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
NUEVA RENCA is a 379 MW source-record oil power plant in Santiago Metropolitan, Chile, commissioned in 1997.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 284,574 homes (estimated).
NUEVA RENCA is operated by SOC. ELECTRICA SANTIAGO S.A..
