Secretary of Energy Resolution No. 551/2021: modification of the Regime to the Term Market of Electric Power from Renewable Source.
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Power Department report | Secretary of Energy Resolution No. 551/2021: modification to the Regime of the Term Market of Electric Power from Renewable Source
Dear Sir or Madam,
Secretary of Energy (“SE”) Resolution No. 551/2021 (the “Resolution”), published in the Official Gazette today, modified the Regime of the Term Market of Electric Power from Renewable Source (“MATER”) in order to “carry out a restructuring of the rules and administration of dispatch priorities assigned and assignable to the generation of renewable sources” and “review the criterion in respect of the requirements of the securities granted”, as these are projects executed under the exclusive risk of Generation Agents.
In this context, the Resolution derogated section 12 of the annex to resolution SE 281-E / 2017 (the “Annex”), which required the establishment of a surety for the assignment of dispatch priority, and replaced sections 10, 11, 11 bis, and 13.
Below we highlight the most relevant changes:
• Assignment of Dispatch Priority (“APD”): the APD will be in place for a maximum period of up to 24 months from its granting (or failing that, from the term declared on the occasion of section 9 of the Annex) by the Agency in Charge of Dispatch (“ACD”). The owners of the projects that have been selected to receive the APD must pay the sum of US$ 500 converted into pesos per megawatt (“MW”) of assigned power as a dispatch priority reserve to obtain the APD for the relevant quarter. Non-payment will carry the loss of such right and the impossibility to make a new request for dispatch priority for the same project during the following 4 quarters.
• Maintenance of the priority: Once the dispatch priority has been granted, the owners of the project must pay –in each calendar quarter until the declared commercial operations date– the amount in Argentine pesos equivalent to US$500 per MW of assigned power as a reservation price for the dispatch priority. The maximum period of 24 months (or declared within the framework of section 9 of the Annex) may be extended under certain conditions. In any case, the lack of payment will imply for the owner of the project to resign to the assigned dispatch priority and the impossibility to request dispatch priority for the same project during the following 4 quarters.
• Regularization of the status of projects with dispatch priority granted: the ACD has been instructed to invite those projects that have been granted dispatch priority to regularize their situation in accordance with the guidelines of the Resolution within 60 days. The owners of projects that have not entered into commercial operations may resign to the dispatch priority and the security posted will be returned, but they may not request dispatch priority for the same project during the following 8 quarters. The project owners who do not adhere to the Resolution or do not resign to their current dispatch priority will continue with the conditions in force prior to the Resolution.
• Tolerance in reduction of power with dispatch priority: The owners of projects that have achieved commercial operations will have tolerance in authorized power of up to 3 MW lower than the power with granted priority for wind technology and up to 10% lower than power with granted priority for all other technologies.
Please, do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further information on this matter.
Sincerely,
Ricardo Castañeda
José Carlos Cueva
Gonzalo Viña