Redistributing power? Comparing the electrical system experiences in Chile and Brazil from a historical institutional perspective

Although studies on sustainable energy transition have grown considerably, the focus on developing countries is lacking, mainly in terms of governing schemes and the social power distribution that allows, blocks and drives the transition. Contributing to filling this gap, this work analyses the cases of Chile and Brazil, two countries with a well-marked nonconventional renewable energy penetration and who implemented distributed generation at the beginning of the 21st century. Considering institutions as carriers of history, we review the Chilean and Brazilian electrical systems, crossing—in parallel—three historical steps of both systems: genesis, structuration, and sustainable energy transition. As an initial contribution, this work fashions a framework integrating historical institutionalism with conceptions of power and elites in transitions to understand the main junctures, paths, and tendencies driving Chilean and Brazilian electrical governance over time. As a second insight, it focuses on on-grid energy communities as an eventual critical milestone in the energy transition since it might extend participation to the many, being a channel to redistribute social power within energy systems. With an emerging institutional framework for on-grid energy communities in Chile and Brazil, there is vast potential to develop these initiatives in citizens' hands.