Argentina estrena sistema de baterías de litio para evitar apagones en verano

A massive blackout struck the Buenos Aires metropolitan area on the evening of September 19th, leaving nearly 600,000 people without power between 8 and 9 p.m. The failure originated in a 220-kilovolt switch at the Malaver transformer station, an Edenor facility in San Martín. The automatic isolation mechanism failed to respond in time, and the problem cascaded across the network, affecting customers of both Edenor and Edesur. The timing was notable—power cuts typically arrive with summer heat, not in September—but the outage exposed a structural problem the government is racing to solve before temperatures rise.

Argentina's electrical infrastructure has not kept pace with consumption growth for roughly two decades. The metropolitan area now accounts for 40 percent of the nation's electricity demand, consuming 4,954 gigawatt-hours in August 2026 alone, a 6.5 percent increase year-over-year. That surge did not stem from weather; August's average temperature was 12.3 degrees Celsius, slightly below the historical norm. The growth reflects structural factors: more appliances, more air conditioning units, more connected devices. Experts agree the bottleneck is not generation capacity—Argentina has gas, hydropower, wind, and solar resources—but rather the infrastructure's ability to move that energy to homes during peak demand hours. In winter, gas is diverted to heating and generation costs rise. In summer, gas availability increases and prices fall, but the distribution network reaches its physical limits.

The government's response is called ALMA-GBA, the country's first large-scale energy storage initiative, based on lithium-battery systems and representing an investment exceeding 540 million dollars. Fifteen companies divided 683 megawatts of storage capacity across nine installations in strategic nodes of the metropolitan network. The system works through what engineers call BESS—Battery Energy Storage Systems. During low-demand periods, typically late night or midday, batteries charge from the grid over six to eight hours. When demand peaks and the network strains, the batteries discharge stored energy over five hours, functioning as a buffer that absorbs consumption spikes. The Compañía Administradora del Mercado Mayorista Eléctrico, or Cammesa, manages the charge and discharge cycles. Companies do not operate at their discretion; they receive fixed payments for availability—compensation for keeping batteries charged and ready—while the regulator decides when and how energy is dispatched. The system contemplates one or two daily cycles, with equipment positioned to handle either morning or evening peaks.

A technical detail matters: when batteries charge, they themselves become a demand on the network. If charging occurred during peak hours, it would worsen the problem rather than solve it. Charging is therefore scheduled for low-consumption periods, when the grid has sufficient capacity to absorb it. The batteries also absorb generation surpluses, mitigate network variability, and provide auxiliary services that stabilize the Argentine interconnection system. Their response is nearly instantaneous, a valuable resource in emergencies.

The bidding process awarded 713 megawatts of storage capacity, exceeding the initial target of 500 megawatts. Central Puerto, the most advanced project, operates two installations with 70 percent completion. On a 20,000-square-meter site at Puerto Nuevo overlooking the Río de la Plata, the company has already installed 135 containers of Chinese-manufactured lithium batteries—China dominates global production of materials for this technology. The project required laying 130 kilometers of cable. Central Puerto's investment totals approximately 150 million dollars for the Puerto Nuevo installation and 50 million dollars for the Costanera project. The company designed a five-hour discharge window, exceeding the regulatory minimum of four hours to capture greater operational margin through additional investment.

Other companies divided the remaining capacity: MSU Green Energy secured 150 megawatts at the Matheu node for Edenor; Eólica del Sur 3 obtained two 50-megawatt contracts at Pilar and Parque; Genneia won 40 megawatts at Maschwitz; Central Dock Sud installed 90 megawatts at Dock Sud for Edesur; Aluar completed 30 megawatts in San Fernando; and Rowing and Sullair added capacity in a second round of awards with tighter pricing. One project, BESS Oro Verde, was cancelled and no longer forms part of the active scheme. The installations concentrate at critical nodes—Puerto Nuevo, Costanera, Dock Sud—where stored energy can be injected directly where demand is greatest, addressing a concrete limitation: the inability to step down high-voltage supply from certain network points into the interior of the metropolitan area.

Financing does not fall on the distribution companies but on residential users through a charge added to electricity bills. In return, Cammesa avoids purchasing or importing fuel or energy during the system's most strained moments, representing a net savings. Inauguration is scheduled before year's end, meaning the system should be operational before summer, when demand begins to climb. The government has already launched a second phase, Alma SADI, to add 700 megawatts of storage at critical nodes across the northwest, northeast, center, littoral, Cuyo, and Buenos Aires regions outside the metropolitan area, with an estimated investment of 700 million dollars. That second stage has already allocated 700.5 megawatts among five companies, with operations targeted to begin January 1, 2027.