Amid question marks, Argentina extends thermoelectric supply contract signing window

Argentina’s federal energy department has extended for 60 working days a window for the signing of thermoelectric contracts associated with generation projects awarded last half in the TerCONF regulated supply auction.

Via a resolution, the department instructed wholesale power market administrator Cammesa to inform awardees.

The government of libertarian President Javier Milei, which took office shortly after the award announcements were made, had previously told Cammesa to hold fire on advancing the signing process.

Overall, 3.3GW in supply contracts were awarded in November.

High-ranking officials in the government have said they preferred a decentralized contract market like Mater rather than large, centralized government supply auctions such as those under the RenovAr program. Officials are reportedly working on a restructuring of the local power market, as commissioned by the national executive and preliminarily outlined in a new bill introduced in congress recently.  

“I think the government is analyzing in detail if they need all this capacity or not,” Fernando Bonnet, CEO of generator and TerCONF awardee Central Puerto, said during a recent call with investors.

“If you ask me, I don’t see the government awarding all that capacity. In fact, they want to go with a scheme of private [power purchase agreements] PPAs, trying to channel PPAs between distribution companies, users, generators, to promote that.”

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