On May 18, 2016, in an official ceremony led by President Mauricio Macri, the Ministry of Energy and Mining, through Resolutions 71/2016 and 72/2016, started the Process of Open Call for contracting in the Wholesale Electricity Market for electricity generation from renewable sources, under the so-called “RenovAr Program - Round 1”.

The process will culminate in an international tender which aims to contract, in the first stage of RenovAr, the provision of 1,000 megawatts of power divided as follows: 600 megawatts of Wind energy, 300 megawatts of Solar energy, 65 megawatts of Biomass, 20 megawatts of  Small Hydroelectric Plants and 15 megawatts of Biogas, with a time-limit for implementation of the contracts up to 24 months and an estimated investment of 1,500 to 2,000 million dollars.

As part of the mentioned resolutions of the Ministry of Energy and Mining, the draft of the tender specifications is open for public consultation for twenty days, after the ending of the consultations mentioned (June 12), it will establish the terms and conditions of the tender.

The tentative dates of the different stages and processes of the tender are:

• Launch by CAMMESA of the Public Consultation “PRE-TENDER RenovAr (Round 1)” - May 16
• Publication by CAMMESA of the preliminary versions of other documents related to the Open Call (“The Documents”) – May 23
• End of the Public Consultation (not binding) - June 12
• Elevation by CAMMESA of Observations to the Secretariat of Electric Power - June 17
• Publication by CAMMESA of “TENDER RenovAr (Round 1)” and final versions of “The Documents” - 01 July
• Selling by CAMMESA of the “TENDER RenovAr (Round 1)” and final versions of “The Documents” - July 2 to August 8
• Period of binding consultations “TENDER RenovAr (Round 1)” and final versions of “The Documents” by interested parties – July 2 to August 8
• Signing Trust Contract “FODER” – August 8
• Publication by CAMMESA of the definitive versions of Term Sheet and World Bank Guarantees – August 8
• Submission of Bids (Envelope “A” and “B”) - August 22
• Opening and Evaluation “Envelope A” - August 23 to September 16
• Publication by CAMMESA of qualification of Bids “Envelope A” - September 19
• Opening and Evaluation of Bids “Envelope B” - September 23
• Adjudication of Bids - September 28
• Signing of CCERs and Adhesion Contracts to FODER - October 28

The pre-tender has as something attractive to investors a guarantee from the World Bank to reduce the risk of potential bidders in particular regarding situations of non-compliance of the supply contracts. In principle, they are foreseen in terms of 20 years. They will be signed with the bidders who result selected, taking into account factors such as the price in the supply offer, the national component of the investment, the requirement to the trust fund (integrated by the national government in order to co-finance investments in the RenovAr program) and the time required to accomplish the works and provide the committed energy supply.

In the document enclosed you could find more information about the renewable energy sector in Argentina.

You can find more information in Spanish on the following websites:

http://portalweb.cammesa.com/Pages/RenovAr.aspx
http://portalweb.cammesa.com/Documentos%20compartidos/Noticia /Prepliego%20RenovAr%20Ronda%201.pdf