• The Center of Operational Excellence is the first of its kind in Chile. Each of the tools and facilities built there will have a practical purpose and are aimed at guaranteeing the well-being of Enel employees, creating awareness about a safe work environment and providing a high-quality service to customers.
• The main building will have innovative 3D rooms, a remote-control system and classrooms, making it the most technologically advanced center of its kind in the country.
• The Center of Operational Excellence (COE) has been in operation since 2020 and to date has already trained more than 1,000 people.

Santiago, October 13, 2021 - Enel Distribución has begun construction of the main building of its Center of Operational Excellence (COE), located in the Lampa district. This important structure will be one of the last to be built as part of this ambitious project and complement the other buildings and training equipment that have been in operation since 2020.

The COE is a space created at full-size scale for developing technical competencies oriented to the distribution of electric power. Its main objective is to help the company meet its commitments to zero accidents, operational excellence and high standards of service quality for its customers. This is to be achieved in all activities of construction, operations and maintenance of low, medium and high-voltage electrical networks, both overhead and underground. The COE also has a space equipped with different Enel X solutions such as for installing and testing air conditioning products and solar panels and will have charging points for electric vehicles. To date, more than 1,000 people have already been trained in this space.

"Enel Distribución's Center of Operational Excellence is the first electric distribution and transmission training center of its kind in Chile. Here, the company can develop work techniques and train personnel in their use on an actual scale environment and in the same conditions as in the field. This helps strengthen the technical abilities and safety of our workers and contractors and prepare better professionals. We have also made our COE available to students who are about to finish high school so that they can learn by practicing in the same conditions that they will encounter in the working world tomorrow. With this center we are demonstrating our commitment to quality education, employment and economic growth," said Ramón Castañeda, general manager of Enel Distribución.

The main building of the COE, whose construction is now getting under way, will have an innovative 3D room with immersive technology that eliminates distractions from the environment in order to boost information retention. In addition, a room with a telecontrol system will be implemented, which will provide a crucial experience for those who coordinate the operation of Enel Distribución's electrical system. In parallel, there will be four classrooms, a measurement room and a room for personal protection equipment.

The Center of Operational Excellence is the first of its kind in Chile. Each of the tools and facilities built there will have a practical purpose for guaranteeing the well-being of Enel employees, creating awareness about a safe work environment and providing a high-quality service to customers.

Training for students

The Center of Operational Excellence currently has agreements in place with higher education institutions and technical high schools. These collaborative partnerships give students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the technical know-how of the company's specialists in electricity distribution. At the same time, they can take advantage of the COE's infrastructure to develop the technical competencies, skills and conduct necessary for working safely with electrical infrastructure, while at the same time ensuring environmental protection and providing good quality of service to customers.

In 2020, a group of fourth-grade electricity students from the Liceo Bicentenario de Lampa school participated in a pilot project and were able to put their technical training into practice based on the real demand in the national electricity market. Enel Distribución collaborated with the REDES project, promoted by the SOFOFA schools’ network (Red de Liceos), to make the COE facilities available to the students.

The training program, which also covered the areas of environmental protection and providing a quality electricity service for customers, consisted of 20 hours of online theoretical training and 56 hours of classroom activities, most of which took place at Enel Distribución's COE.

The training program is an alternating plan of collaborative learning, that has been adapting to meet the new profile of electricity technicians required by the company who must face the challenges of digital transformation in the energy industry.