Guide

Transmission line and gen-tie easements in Chile: concession route or negotiated route

Concession route or negotiated route for a line in Chile: what a definitive concession grants, the statutory deadlines, appraisal and what is compensated.

By Nicolás Chaparro SoumastrePublished Also in: 中文

Contents
  1. Which route fits your line?
  2. What does a definitive concession grant, and who grants it?
  3. What deadlines run once owners are notified?
  4. What is compensated, and what does an owner look at?
  5. How is a negotiated easement documented and recorded?
  6. What changes for a gen-tie or a private line?
  7. How do Estudio de Franja corridors work for the national system?
  8. What about access roads, construction and maintenance?

Which route fits your line?

A line needs land from every parcel it crosses. In Chile there are two ways to get it, and one route can use both.

  • Negotiated route. Each owner grants a voluntary easement by public deed (Civil Code, arts. 698 and 880). Price, route and entry terms are whatever you agree.
  • Concession route. A definitive electric concession gives its holder the right to impose easements to string the line and occupy the land it needs (LGSE, arts. 14 and 51). Concessions cover lines, substations, hydroelectric plants and distribution, never the site of a solar or wind plant (arts. 2 and 3).

A concession is optional: a line can be built without one if the developer prefers (LGSE, art. 4). The choice turns on the number of owners, the risk of holdouts, your schedule, and how your lenders apply IFC Performance Standard 5 to easements negotiated with a concession in reserve (paras. 5 and 6).

We are the landowner under the line and access easements recorded on our own property, and we coordinate each holder’s access to it (track record). Our page on right-of-way for transmission lines and gen-ties compares the two routes side by side.

What does a definitive concession grant, and who grants it?

The Minister of Energy grants the definitive concession by decree, after a report from the SEC, Chile’s electricity and fuels regulator. Where the route requires it, the National Directorate of Borders and Limits (DIFROL) must authorize it too (art. 29). The concession is granted for an indefinite term (art. 31).

With the decree, its holder can impose easements on the parcels the line needs (arts. 14 and 51), and the decree alone is enough to record them with the Conservador de Bienes Raíces, the local land registry (art. 62).

What deadlines run once owners are notified?

The concession route follows a sequence set by the LGSE:

  • 1. Notice and objections. Owners notified of the concession request have 30 days to file observations or objections with the SEC (art. 27 ter).
  • 2. Decree. The Minister grants the concession by decree, after the SEC’s report (art. 29).
  • 3. Six-month window. From the decree’s publication, the holder has six months to start the easement steps, or the right to impose them lapses (art. 62).
  • 4. Appraisal. Where there is no agreement on value, the SEC appoints three-member appraisal commissions, each a comisión tasadora (art. 63).
  • 5. Challenge. The parties have 30 days to challenge the appraisal (art. 68).
  • 6. Possession. Once the appraised value is paid or deposited, a judge puts the holder in material possession of the land, even with challenges pending (art. 67).

The periods in steps 1, 3 and 5 are fixed by law. How long the rest takes depends on the objections filed, the number of parcels and the appraisals. The six-month window in step 3 runs against the holder. We prepare the parcel data, owner details and easement plans before the decree is published, so the steps can start the week it comes out.

What is compensated, and what does an owner look at?

Without agreement, the appraisal pays for three items: the land occupied by posts, towers, trenches, buildings and roads; the damages caused; and an indemnity for transit across the parcel, capped at the value of a 2 m (6.5 ft) strip of land where the line crosses it (LGSE, art. 69). The value of the occupied land is increased by 20% (art. 70), and the appraisal leaves out any value the works add to the land (art. 63).

That formula frames the negotiation, because both sides know what an appraisal would count. Owners focus on what the formula prices poorly or leaves out:

  • where each tower stands relative to fences, water points, houses and crops;
  • which gates are used, with how much notice, and who holds the keys;
  • how roads and fences are repaired after construction and after each maintenance campaign;
  • what the owner may still do under the line, given that no planting or works may disturb the easement (art. 57);
  • whether payment is a lump sum or comes in installments.

We put those answers in the deed, parcel by parcel, on terms that stay consistent along the route.

How is a negotiated easement documented and recorded?

Any owner may subject a parcel to an easement (Civil Code, art. 880). The easement is transferred by public deed (escritura pública) (art. 698), and a sale of easements is not complete without one (art. 1801). Easements may be recorded with the Conservador, in the Register of Mortgages and Encumbrances (Ley del Registro Conservatorio, arts. 32 and 53). The law does not require it. We record every deed, so the easement appears on the parcel’s certificate for any later buyer or lender.

Each deed carries a plan of the easement strip and is recorded with the Conservador of the comuna where the parcel lies. A long route therefore means several offices, and a title study for every parcel crossed, as explained in our article on title due diligence in Chile.

Lenders that apply IFC Performance Standard 5 also look at how each easement was obtained. The standard counts easements and rights-of-way as land acquisition (note 2). Where it applies, compensation is measured at replacement cost, which is market value plus transaction costs, without depreciation (note 4). We keep a written record of every negotiation and every complaint from the first contact.

What changes for a gen-tie or a private line?

A gen-tie is not a public service, but it can request a line concession to obtain statutory easements (LGSE, arts. 2, 14 and 51). The backstop therefore exists even for a line that serves a single plant, and the deadlines and appraisal rules above apply to it in the same way.

What changes is the ground it crosses. A gen-tie usually runs between a plant and the nearest substation, and near towns and roads small parcels multiply the deeds, the estates and the Conservadores involved. We count them during the corridor study, before a route is chosen, because a route with fewer owners can be worth a longer line. The same study maps native forest, mining concessions and existing lines along the corridor, since each one brings permissions or rights of its own.

How do Estudio de Franja corridors work for the national system?

Law 20.936 of 2016 created the Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional and the current planning regime for transmission. The LGSE now divides transmission into national, development pole, zonal and dedicated segments (art. 73).

For new works set by an expansion decree that require it, the Ministry of Energy carries out an Estudio de Franja, a transmission corridor study. It includes a strategic environmental assessment and, where applicable, indigenous consultation (LGSE, arts. 92 and 93). The decree that sets the preliminary corridor allows the land in it to be burdened with easements for public utility (art. 94). Once the work has its environmental approval, another decree fixes the final route and safety strip, and the electric easement arises by operation of law (art. 97).

For a developer, this matters in two cases. A site or gen-tie route that crosses a corridor fixed by decree may share that land with a future national line. A company awarded one of those works receives its easements from the decree that fixes the final route (art. 97), not from a negotiation with each owner.

What about access roads, construction and maintenance?

Access roads need the same care as the line. A road across a parcel the line does not cross needs its own voluntary easement. New accesses to national or regional roads need authorization from Vialidad, the roads directorate, and in rural areas no building may stand within 35 m (115 ft) of the fence line along a national road (LGUC, art. 56).

Construction occupies more land than the finished line: work areas, stringing sites, temporary tracks. We agree those areas, their duration and their restoration in the deed, and record the condition of fences, gates and roads before works start.

Once the line is in service, the owner must let the holder’s identified inspectors and workers in to maintain it (LGSE, art. 56). The deed adds what the statute leaves open, such as notice periods, gates, hours and repair standards. To discuss a route or a corridor, send us its start and end points.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need a provisional concession before the definitive one?
No. A definitive electric concession can be requested without a provisional one (LGSE, art. 25). The provisional concession serves to carry out studies and measurements for the project (arts. 4 and 19). It covers the study stage of a route, and your counsel can tell you whether filing one is worth it for yours.
Can an electric easement cross a building?
No. Buildings are not subject to the easements of an electric concession (LGSE, art. 54), so the route has to avoid them unless the owner agrees otherwise in a voluntary deed. The owner can also ask that the new line make use of existing lines (art. 53), which is why we map every existing line along the corridor first.
Can mining work go on near a transmission line?
Only with permission. Mining work within 50 m (164 ft) of a high-voltage line needs the governor's permission, unless the line belongs to whoever does the work or its owner authorizes it (Mining Code, art. 17). Where a route crosses mining concessions, the concessions keep their own easement rights over the parcel (arts. 120 and 122), so we map them before the route is fixed.
Does a line route through native forest need a CONAF permit?
Yes. Any cutting of native forest needs a management plan approved by CONAF, the national forest service (Ley 20.283, art. 5). Where the cutting comes from an electric concession or easement, the plan must be filed by its holder or by whoever is applying for it (art. 7). CONAF has 90 days to rule, and if it does not, the plan is deemed approved, except in the cases listed in art. 17 (art. 8).
Does a gen-tie go through environmental review in Chile?
It does if it exceeds 23 kV and 2 km (1.2 miles) of route: since January 2026, that alone brings a line into the SEIA, Chile's environmental impact assessment system (DS 40/2012, art. 3, as amended by Decree 17 of 2025). A shorter line can still enter together with the project it serves, so your environmental consultant confirms the route.

Sources

  1. Ley General de Servicios Eléctricos (DFL 4/20.018 of 2006), arts. 2, 4, 14, 19, 25, 27 ter, 29, 31, 51, 53, 54, 56, 57, 62, 63, 67 to 70, 73, 92 to 94 and 97 (verified on )
  2. Ley 20.936 of 2016 (transmission systems and the Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional) (verified on )
  3. Código Civil (Civil Code), arts. 698, 880 and 1801 (verified on )
  4. Ley del Registro Conservatorio de Bienes Raíces, arts. 32 and 53 (verified on )
  5. Ley 20.283 (Native Forest Law), arts. 5, 7 and 8 (verified on )
  6. Ley 21.770 (Framework Law on Sectoral Authorizations), amending Ley 20.283, art. 7 (verified on )
  7. Código de Minería (Mining Code), arts. 17, 120 and 122 (verified on )
  8. Ley General de Urbanismo y Construcciones (DFL 458 of 1975), art. 56 (verified on )
  9. DS 40/2012, Environmental Impact Assessment System Regulation, art. 3 (as amended by Decree 17 of 2025, Ministry of the Environment) (verified on )
  10. IFC Performance Standard 5, Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement (2012), paras. 5 and 6 and notes 2 and 4 (verified on )

This article is general information and does not replace legal advice on your case. The laws cited may change; check their current text at the Library of the National Congress of Chile (bcn.cl).

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