Chile runs its first grid-forming field tests on a 48 MW battery
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readThe body that runs Chile's power system has taken grid-forming plant out of the laboratory for the first time. Testing was done on the Engie battery at Los Loros, in Atacama, and pv magazine described the exercise on 22 September 2026.
Power Block No. 1 ran in grid-forming mode and took part in forming an electrical island. The operator reports that voltage and frequency stayed stable on the isolated grid through the test. The work was done jointly by the Coordinator, Engie Chile and Huawei.
The purpose is regulatory rather than demonstrative. The tests feed operational data into the verification criteria the Coordinator is building for inverter-based resources able to form a grid. That process has a paper trail: minimum technical requirement recommendations published in October 2024, final grid-forming requirements in April 2025, and a Guide for the Verification of Grid-Forming Inverter-Based Installations in May 2026 covering pre-connection model and laboratory checks, field tests, and monitoring in commercial operation.
The stated requirements are specific — autonomy and synchronisation, fast voltage and frequency control, islanded operation, oscillation damping, and stable behaviour on very weak and passive grids. Los Loros entered commercial operation at the end of August: Engie reports 48 MW gross and 275.23 MWh across 63 LFP containers, a $64 million investment, coupled to the Los Loros solar plant.
What it means
The distinction being tested is the one that decides how far inverter-based generation can go. Grid-following inverters need an existing voltage and frequency reference; grid-forming plant establishes it. A system that reaches high inverter share without grid-forming capability eventually runs out of machines willing to define what the grid is doing.
What makes this item worth more than a demonstration is the order of operations. The requirements were written first and the field test is being used to validate the verification method, not to prove that the technology exists. For an operator elsewhere, the reusable artefact is the guide: pre-connection modelling, laboratory work, field test, then monitoring in service. That sequence is what turns a capability into a connection condition.