The 103 MW Huatacondo solar plant and its 98 MW/312 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), located in Chile’s Tarapacá region, have remained out of service for two months following a cyberattack. The Chilean National Electricity Coordinator’s daily report for Oct. 27 lists both facilities as subject to forced disconnection, with 0% availability. The report continues to cite an incident reported on Aug. 27 under forced disconnection request SDCF 2025.1000.
The incident was recorded on Aug. 27 at 1:10 p.m., when the RNE control center requested the forced disconnection of the solar plant and its battery storage system. The reported cause was a “cyberattack on the Huatacondo facilities,” which left both installations disconnected from Chile’s National Electric System (SEN).
At the same time, RNE requested the forced disconnection of the 220/23 kV TR1 transformer at the Santa Rita substation, also citing a cyberattack, according to SDCF request 2026100746.
The same daily report records two other incidents attributed to cyberattacks. At 9:30 p.m., the Espinos (Power) control center reported that the Olivos and Espinos thermal power plants, located in Los Vilos in the Coquimbo region, were unavailable for dispatch following the loss of monitoring and remote-control capabilities.
The report does not establish whether these incidents were related to the earlier incident at Huatacondo or resulted from the same attack.
The Huatacondo solar plant, inaugurated in 2019, is owned by a consortium comprising Japan’s Sojitz Corp., with a 60% stake; Shikoku Electric Power, previously reported as holding 30%; and France’s Eiffage, with 10%.
The battery storage project, developed by AustrianSolar Chile Four SpA, began construction in 2025. Canadian Solar subsidiary e-Storage solution was selected to supply the BESS, while Tritec-Intervento was contracted to carry out the balance-of-plant works.
The battery system was still undergoing commissioning when the incident occurred and remained in that phase as of Oct. 27. Its unavailability therefore does not represent a two-month interruption of an established commercial operation.
A review of the National Electricity Coordinator’s daily reports covering Oct. 28, 2025, through Oct. 27, 2026, examined 360 of the 365 reports published during the period.
The review identified no other new incidents explicitly attributed to cyberattacks beyond those reported on Aug. 27. Subsequent references concerned the continued disconnection of the Huatacondo facilities.
The reports for Oct. 29 and Oct. 31, 2025, and March 30, Aug. 31 and Sept. 8, 2026, could not be reviewed. The findings therefore do not establish that the August incidents were the only cyberattacks during the period or the first incidents of their kind. They are limited to documented operational incidents explicitly described using those terms in the reports examined.
In October 2025, Patricio Leyton, director of the National Electricity Coordinator’s Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Unit, told Mining Report that Chile had not recorded cyberattacks with a significant impact on its electricity infrastructure, despite the millions of attempted attacks detected by the organization.
The Coordinator has a cybersecurity incident notification protocol that establishes reporting obligations for entities operating within the electricity system.
On Aug. 28, one day after the reported incidents, Chile’s National Energy Commission (CNE) opened a public consultation on a draft technical standard for cybersecurity and information security in the electricity sector.
pv magazine contacted the National Electricity Coordinator and AustrianSolar Chile Four SpA seeking information about the circumstances of the reported attack, its operational consequences and the expected timeline for restoring the facilities. Neither organization had responded by the time of publication.
No public statement was identified that clarified the origin of the incident, the computer systems affected, any potential connection between the incidents reported on Aug. 27, or the reasons for Huatacondo’s prolonged unavailability.
The Coordinator’s daily reports record the causes communicated by plant operators but do not constitute technical investigations establishing the nature or extent of the reported cyberattacks.
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