The La Higuera hydropower plant started operations in September 2010. Its construction required an investment outlay of close to US $300 million. The La Higuera hydropower plant takes in water through three intakes on the Azufre and Tinguiririca Rivers and the Los Helados Stream. The plant has an installed capacity of 155 MW, and the energy generated is transported from the La Higuera electrical substation to the Tinguiririca electrical substation over a power transmission line extending over 36 kilometers. The start of operations at the La Higuera plant was a milestone in the energy sector in Chile because the last previous run-of-river hydropower plant having a capacity of greater than 100 MW had been started up in country in 2000. Another important milestone set by La Higuera was that on 20 March 2006 it became one of the first projects of Chilean origin to register for issuing carbon credits under the Executive Board (EB) of the United Nations in charge of supervising activities related with the clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol.

The construction start on the La Confluencia hydropower plant was made in October 2007, and the startup of operations of the plant occurred in December 2010. This run-of-river hydropower plant takes in water from the Tinguiririca, Portillo and Azufre Rivers and four other smaller watercourses. The principal water intakes are the Portillo and Tinguiririca intakes. The Portillo intake has an adduction tunnel 12 km long and can take in 25 m3/second of water, while the Tinguiririca intake operates with a tunnel 9.2 kilometers long and is capable of taking in water at the rate of 26.5 m3/second. Simultaneously, the other five secondary intakes on side valleys can take in between 1.5 and 2.3m3/second of water. Close to the Tinguiririca intake a pondage arrangement was put in place with a capacity to store 1.2 million m3 of water, an amount representing an operating time of six hours for the plant when operating at full capacity. The La Confluencia plant has an installed capacity of 163 MW. The energy generated is transported by means of a transmission line running 18 kilometers in length from the La Confluencia electrical substation to the La Higuera electrical substation and thence over a high voltage transmission line to the Tinguiririca electrical substation in the municipal district of Placilla, where it is connected to the electrical grid under the authority of the National Electrical Coordinator (CEN).