Oil power plant in Santiago Metropolitan, Chile. Approximate location -33.4173, -70.6886.
OilSantiago MetropolitanChileSteam
RENCA is a 92 MW oil power plant in Santiago Metropolitan, Chile. It is operated by SOC. ELECTRICA SANTIAGO S.A.. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 69k homes (estimated). It ranks #84 of 336 Chile power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1962, it is around 64 years old — an older, legacy facility. 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 CHL0000103.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is the current source-record value. A 2026 tracker candidate lists 50 MW for Renca power station, but it is not used as the public primary value until scope is verified (unit vs operating vs installed/project total).
Capacity claim grade: B_SCOPE_PARENT_COMPLEX - recommended action: build_parent_complex_model - confidence: not_comparable_without_scope. This follows a claim-based data model: value + scope + source + confidence, rather than silently overwriting records.
The capacity and fuel fields on this page are source-record values from the upstream open dataset. They are useful for identification and ranking, but they have not been upgraded to a 2026 registry/GEM-location verified value.
capacity: WRI Global Power Plant Database source-record (legacy); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 92 MW, RENCA is well above the median oil plant in Chile (11 MW). Technically it is described as Steam. 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 #15 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 -33.4173, -70.6886 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
RENCA is a 92 MW source-record oil power plant in Santiago Metropolitan, Chile, commissioned in 1962.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 69,078 homes (estimated).
RENCA is operated by SOC. ELECTRICA SANTIAGO S.A..
