Argentina publishes priority dispatch capacity available under new award mechanism

Argentina’s wholesale power market administrator Cammesa has disclosed details on available transmission capacity corresponding to a new type of priority dispatch, known as Reference A.

Information is outlined in a document published on Cammesa’s website.

Officials announced Reference A along with other rule changes last half. They are chiefly designed to mitigate transmission congestion fallout, which has become a headwind to new clean energy projects targeting the Mater term market, where the likes of factories enter into private power-purchase agreements with generators.

Under Reference A, Cammesa can award priority dispatch along congested transmission corridors to Mater projects, on the understanding that some output may be curtailed. 

Cammesa is due to publish a Reference A schedule shortly. 

Mater has been driving growth of the country’s installed wind and solar capacity amid an absence of regulated power supply auctions – which have only recently resumed via RenMDI – but a lack of transmission capacity is whipping up headwinds. Demand for private PPAs from corporates is healthy, driven by factors including price and supply security, decarbonization and compliance with local renewables targets.

In the last standard priority dispatch capacity auction, corresponding to 2Q23, two renewables projects for a combined 458MW were awarded 265MW of capacity.

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Argentina has also amended rules governing the implementation of federal distributed generation law No. 27,424 of 2019, which targets the residential and SME segments. 

Officials have established three categories of user-generator: individual user-generator, community user-generator and virtual community user-generator.

Three more categories of user-generator are also established, based on size of installation.

User-generators that operate under that law are eligible for benefits, including tax credits.  

TYPES OF USER-GENERATOR

In terms of type of user-generator, the first – individual user-generator – involves a single user with a renewable energy installation that generates power for self-supply and injects surplus into the grid.

The second involves two or more users that draw power from different points on a single distributor’s network. They must inform the distributor that they will jointly administer a generation installation, which does not necessarily have to be located at one of the user’s point of connection.  

Finally, the third category, virtual community user-generator, is similar to the second but total demand and injection is monitored in real time via smart meters with this capability. This, a resolution said, would permit the acquisition of data for each user and the group as a whole.

INSTALLED CAPACITY CATEGORIES

In terms of classification based on installation size, three are established. 

The first is small user-generator, those who connect installations of up to 3kW of capacity to the low-voltage distribution network.

The second is medium-sized user-generator, those who connect installations of 3kW-300kW to the low or medium-voltage distribution network.

The third is large user-generator, those who connect installations of 300kW-2MW to the low or medium-voltage distribution system.

No connected installation can be over 2MW, the resolution said.

A recently published national energy transition plan sets a target of reaching 1GW of installed distributed generation capacity by 2030.

Capacity installed under federal law No. 27,424, stands at 23.4MW, with 10.6MW more in the pipeline.