Argentina transmission priority dispatch auction attracts 458MW in projects

Two renewables projects for a combined 458MW are seeking transmission priority dispatch capacity in an Argentine auction corresponding to 2Q23.

Auctions are held by wholesale power market administrator Cammesa to assign capacity to power generation projects targeting the Mater term market.

No projects were put forward in an auction corresponding to 1Q23. The auction for 2Q22, however, attracted 29 projects with combined capacity of 1.06GW.

Mater – where the likes of manufacturers buy power directly from renewables generators – 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 Mater headwinds.

A series of Mater measures were recently announced to leverage existing capacity through new mechanisms and tapping the potential of the private sector to finance transmission expansion works. One, that permits the awarding of partial priority dispatch for those transmission corridors where capacity cannot be awarded fully and for every hour, is being developed. Under this model, there is a limited curtailment risk.

RenMDI attracted 2,069MW of projects, which are competing for the 620MW on offer, a factor which may partly explain the lackluster interest in the latest Mater rounds. The average price offered in RenMDI – where transmission capacity would be available chiefly because projects target the medium-voltage network and replace existing diesel-fired generation – was US$106.7/MWh. 

Meanwhile, the bigger of the two Mater projects proposed is a 300MW solar park, planned for Entre Ríos province by 360 Energy, which is also among the main bidders in RenMDI and a previous recipient of priority dispatch capacity.

Luz de Tres Picos, behind the smaller project and a unit of local industrial firm PCR, also has previously won priority dispatch for several clean energy farms.

PROJECTS PUT FORWARD IN CAMMESA’S 2Q23 AUCTION

Project: La Escondida wind park – 158MW
Applicant: Luz de Tres Picos
Province: Buenos Aires
Transmission corridor: Buenos Aires
Maximum priority dispatch capacity sought: 90MW
Minimum priority dispatch capacity sought: 48MW

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Project: PS 360 Energy Colonia Elía – 300MW
Applicant: 360 Energy Solar
Province: Entre Ríos
Transmission corridor: Litoral
Maximum priority dispatch capacity sought: 175MW
Minimum priority dispatch capacity sought: 175MW

Dispatch priority is due to be assigned on July 28, according to a Cammesa schedule.