Argentina Energy Situation

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Argentina

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Region:

Latin America

Coordinates:

34.6000° S, 58.3833° W

Total Area (km²): It includes a country's total area, including areas under inland bodies of water and some coastal waterways.

2,780,400

Population: It is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin.

45,538,401 (2023)

Rural Population (% of total population): It refers to people living in rural areas as defined by national statistical offices. It is calculated as the difference between total population and urban population.

8 (2023)

GDP (current US$): It is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources.

646,075,277,525 (2023)

GDP Per Capita (current US$): It is gross domestic product divided by midyear population

14,187.48 (2023)

Access to Electricity (% of population): It is the percentage of population with access to electricity.

100.00 (2022)

Energy Imports Net (% of energy use): It is estimated as energy use less production, both measured in oil equivalents. A negative value indicates that the country is a net exporter. Energy use refers to use of primary energy before transformation to other end-use fuels, which is equal to indigenous production plus imports and stock changes, minus exports and fuels supplied to ships and aircraft engaged in international transport.

13.03 (2014)

Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption (% of total): It comprises coal, oil, petroleum, and natural gas products.

87.72 (2014)

Source: World Bank

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Introduction

The Argentinean electricity market was liberalized in 1992, dividing the market into generation, transmission and distribution. In Entities at the national and provincial levels regulate the transmission and distribution sectors, while CAMMESA (Compañía Administradora del Mercado Mayorista Eléctrico) regulate the wholesale electricity market.

In 2012, the historic maximum energy consumption was reached, when the summer energy peak consumption in February climbed up to 455 GWh with a daily registered peak demand of nearly 22,000 MW. Energy demand growth in 2012 was a little bit slower than in 2011, but again close to 5%. Since 2002, the country has faced a large increase in fossil fuels consumption for electricity generation. As a proportion of fossil fuels, the utilization of natural gas for electricity generation dropped from nearly 100% to 70% in 2011/2012. The bulk of the new energy resources came from imported fuel oil, accounting for 16% and imported gas oil for nearly 11% of the total electricity production, together with a slight increase in mineral coal carbon use from 1 to 3%.

At the end of 2012, Argentina completed two 500 KV high voltage transmission lines in order to complete the Argentinean Interconnected System (“SADI” from the Spanish Sistema Argentino de Interconexión) in Western and Northern Argentina. This gave the relatively basic radial grid system a more complex, mesh-style network. In the future a new grid enforcement is also planned for the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires in order to import additional wind power and hydropower from southern Patagonia.

For more information read the latest article by : http://www.kpmg.com/AR/es/foro-energia/enfoques/encuestas-vision-futuro/Documents/Encuesta-Energias-Renovables-2014.pdf

Policy Framework, Laws and Regulations

NDC

Recent analyses developed by Fraunhofer ISI and NewClimate Institute show that faster and steeper than expected cost reductions for certain key mitigation technologies over the past five years can lead to an increased technology uptake and to a higher level of climate ambition, if the initially intended investment sum is maintained. The here presented technical assessment builds on the previously developed methodology to estimate the potential impact of investment cost reductions for renewable energy technologies (solar photovoltaics (PV) and onshore wind) on Argentina’s climate targets in the NDC. They assume that savings due to faster and steeper than expected technology investment cost reductions would be reinvested in the same technology area, which could lead to additional renewable technology uptake. As a result, the overall NDC target of limiting emissions to 369 MtCO2e in 2030 could be further reduced to 351-356 MtCO2e in the same year. This improvement is equivalent to a 6% to 8% increase in emissions reductions in comparison to reductions expected under the conditional NDC target. The current renewable energy targets set out in Law 27.191 are expected to bring Argentina’s renewable electricity share to 20% in 2025 and potentially to 25% in 2030. The consideration of cost progressions outlined in this analysis would render an update of the target to 28%-30% in 2025 and 38%-43% in 2030 possible. This would put Argentina’s power sector well within the range of what is considered to be aligned with the Paris Agreement. The subsequent analysis shows that while a certain awareness for decreasing costs of renewable energy technologies exists among stakeholders and experts in the climate and energy sector, this knowledge has not yet infiltrated main planning and policy making processes which could use this information in order to raise the country’s climate ambition. In this sense, the current situation in Argentina may compromise not only the successful development of the renewable energy sector, but also the country’s potential to raise its climate ambition and to ensure overall socio-economic development. It is thus important to enhance transparent, effective and efficient planning in the energy sector that is based on robust tools and methods and results in the formulation of realistic and achievable targets. These targets are ideally embedded in a clear vision of the government towards the development of this sector and flanked by a policy and regulatory framework that shapes their implementation.

Further Information

•  PTB project "Fortalecimiento de la Infraestructura de la Calidad para la eficiencia energética de artefactos electrodomésticos" MERCOSUR
•  PTB project "Quality Infrastructure for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy" in Latin America and the Caribbean