Power sector in argentina
The electricity sector in Argentina constitutes the third largest power market in Latin America. It relies mostly on thermal generation (54% of installed capacity) and hydropower generation (41%). The country still has a large untapped hydroelectric potential. The prevailing natural gas-fired thermal generation is at risk due to the uncertainty about future gas supply. Faced with rising electricity demand (over 6% annually) and declining reserve margins, the government of Argentina is in the process of commissioning large projects, both in the generation and transmission sectors. To keep up with rising demand, it is estimated that about 1,000 MW of new generation capacity are needed each year. An important number of these projects are being financed by the government through trust funds, while independent private initiative is still limited as it has not fully recovered yet from the effects of the Argentine economic crisis. The electricity sector was unbundled in generation, transmission and distribution by the reforms carried out in the early 1990s. Generation occurs in a competitive and mostly liberalized market in which 75% of the generation capacity is owned by private utilities. In contrast, the transmission and distribution sectors are highly regulated and much less competitive than generation. Private and state-owned companies carry out generation in a competitive, mostly liberalized electricity market, with 75% of total installed capacity in private hands. The share in public hands corresponds to nuclear generation and to the two bi-national hydropower plants: Yacyretá (Argentina-Paraguay) and Salto Grande (Argentina-Uruguay). The generation sector is highly fragmented with more than ten large companies, all of them providing less than 15% of the system's total capacity. Power generators sell their electricity in the wholesale market operated by the CAMMESA. CAMMESA S.A., a wholesale electricity market administrator offers operation and dispatch of generation; price calculation in the spot market; and the administration of the commercial transactions in the electricity market. The company also purchases and sells electric power from abroad and to other countries. CAMMESA S.A. offers consulting services. The company was founded in 1992 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. n 2005, Argentina imported 6.38 TW·h of electricity while it exported 3.49 TW·h. Net energy imports thus were about 3% of consumption. Argentina also imports electricity from Paraguay, produced by the jointly built Yaciretá Dam. On 18 September 2006 Paraguay agreed to settling its debt of $11,000,000,000 owed to Argentina for the construction of Yaciretá by paying in electricity, at the rate of 8,000 GWh per year for 40 years. Total electricity coverage in Argentina was as high as 95% in 2003. However, about 30% of the rural population lacks access to electricity.
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