What to do when the Coordinator sends you a letter with a deadline

The National Electric Coordinator (CEN) writes to the companies it coordinates, and it does so every business day: about one hundred letters a day. Most of those letters inform. Others ask for a document, the correction of a data point or a specific action, and set a deadline to complete it. At a mid-sized generation or transmission company, the risk is rarely the difficult letter. It is the one nobody read in time.

First: what is being asked, and when the clock starts

Before drafting a reply, confirm four things.

• Who it is addressed to. The letter may name the project company rather than the parent, or a company that has changed owners. If it reached the wrong inbox, the deadline still runs.
• What exactly is requested. Sending a document is not the same as correcting data already reported or carrying out an instruction. Each case has its own form of response.
• How the deadline is counted. Business days or calendar days, and from what date. If the letter is not clear, ask in writing before it expires, not after.
• Which rule or procedure it cites. That document usually sets the format and minimum content of the response.

What happens if the deadline lapses

Coordinated companies are required to give the Coordinator the information it requests and to follow its instructions. When they do not, the Coordinator may report the breach to the Superintendency of Electricity and Fuels (SEC), which oversees compliance and imposes sanctions.

Some deadlines also cannot be recovered. The window to file comments on a report or a settlement, or to take a dispute to the Panel of Experts, is short. Once it closes, the outcome stands even if it works against you.

The standard to require

A company that never misses a deadline meets two conditions. Every letter with a deadline is seen on the day it arrives, and its deadline is known. And that happens every business day, regardless of who is in the office that day.

What we do at EnergySage

EnergySage provides daily monitoring of the National Electric Coordinator’s communications to that standard. It is the core service of OASIS, the intelligence platform for Chile’s power system. Monitoring is the foundation; what is built on top goes well beyond it, and is defined with each client. And we help you build it into an automated internal process you can monitor, so it delivers even more. Its value lies in what it lets you anticipate.

See how we approach power-system intelligence or write to us.