2024-01-19 03:16:00
With just two days left until the expiration of the extended term of the concessions of five of the hydroelectric plants in the region, the national government once again extended the contracts, but this time for only 60 days. The measure not only reactivated the claims of Río Negro and Neuquén to participate in the future management of the dams, but also established a position of Milei’s management that was far from the agreements sealed with the previous government and also the companies’ forecasts.
In the Comahue region there are six hydroelectric plants, of which five reached the end of their 30-year concession last year without their future having been clearly defined. The previous national government had ordered that the complexes pass into the hands of Enarsathe state company that is the same one that controls the Néstor Kirchner Gasduct, and had pre-agreed on a kind of participation of the provinces in the future administration.
Without resolving what this new stage would be like for the dams, what was done was to give a series of extensions to the concessions, which originally expired on August 11 in four cases, and on December 29 in the remaining ones.
He extended deadline was until today, Friday the 19th, thus giving a month’s “air” to Milei’s management to define what to do. However, the new government had the concessionaire companies and their 120 employees cutting nails until this Wednesday when a new extension was published in the Official Gazette, but with a surprise.
From The concessionaire companies expected that the Nation would commit to the maximum deadline, that is, until August, to define a new tender in that period. However, the resolution of the Secretary of Energy, Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo It’s for just 60 days, thus defeating everything again on March 19 for El Chocón – Arroyito, Alicurá and Cerros Colorados, and on April 28 in the case of Piedra del Águila.
He Governor of Neuquén, Rolando Figueroaraised the flag with his claim and explained to EnergíaOn: “We are working together with the province of Río Negro to defend what is ours“, as we did with fishing, with gas and oil, and as we are going to do with hydroelectric plants.”
In that sense, he said that he himself Wednesday a meeting was held with the Rio Negro government to coordinate actions and efforts that will be headed by the State Attorney’s Office of each province.
exist two axes of controversy regarding the future of hydroelectric plants. The clearest is control of the dams, and with it, part of the income they generate.
While since provinces insist on the demand for a tripartite entity with the Nation, the head of Energy already closed that window last week when before Congress he remarked that “the contracts literally expired. AND When the contract expires, the assets that were put into use revert to the National State, the dam and the concessionaire’s equipment. This is quite clear in Law 15,336, which was not altered by the Constitutional Reform of 1994.”.
And in case it was not clear, he stressed that “in the case of hydroelectric plants, the rivers were always provincial, what the State reserved for itself is hydroelectric use. Because water is one thing and energy is another.”
Alert: discord over water management
He second point of contention with the national government is in water management, that the region demands that it be prudent, prioritizing consumptive usesthese are those of providing water for irrigation, industries and cities, rather than prioritizing exclusively energy generation.
On this axis, the current president of the Interjurisdictional Authority of Cuencas (AIC), Elías Sapag, He questioned “What does it mean to extend the concessions for only 60 days?”, to list an extensive list of linked unresolved points that can hardly occur in that period.
“We must call the provinces to define the standards for water management, care for the environment, and safety, define who is going to be the control authority for the current standards, who is going to pay the AIC and the Orsep – the security control body,” he reviewed. And he emphasized that “We have to have all these discussions, but in 60 days we don’t know what it means. “We do not understand why the contracts were not extended until August.”
The two-month extension of the concessions also surprised the companies in charge of the plants, the Italian Enel in El Chocón – Arroyito, the North American AES in Alicurá, and the national companies Central Puerto in Piedra del Águila and Aconcagua Energía in Cerros Colorados.
The short period is not consistent with that necessary to carry out a tenderwhich is estimated to be six months, and opens the question of whether the national government will opt for a closed bidding systemor if in two months he will postpone the entire process again.
Hydroelectric concessions: the alternative of a new fee
Meanwhile, AIC Sapag warned that The provinces still have a card up their sleeve.
“Both the law of the Provincial Water Department of Río Negro (DPA), and 899 of Water Resources of Neuquén They enable the provinces to charge a fee for the use of water, something that is done to industries, “It is charged to oil, thermal power plants, among others,” he indicated.
And he pointed out that the collection of a fee does not require the intervention of the national governmentbut of coordination between the provinces and It would be much more economically beneficial than the current royalty system.
With a charge, for example, of 50 cents per cubic meter, it is estimated that the fee to hydroelectric plants could exceed 250 million dollars annually -to be divided among the provinces- multiplying almost by 10 what is received in hydroelectric royalties since the national government changed the way of liquidating it to the detriment of the provinces.
Analysis: You can’t see it from afar
The dams under debate, in this case the Neuquén and Limay rivers, depend for the national government on the Ministry of Energy. However, if you read carefully what its functions are, something becomes evident that, from Buenos Aires, seems not to be seen.
The main function of dams is not the generation of electrical energy, but the regulation of water of the two key rivers for northern Patagonia.
The complexes not only allow avoid the impact that floods would have about the cities of the Upper Valley, that we do not have to go far in time to analyze what happened twice last year with the Neuquén River.
But in times of drought, dams are the reserve of water necessary for all other activities in the region: the water for the cities, for the factories, industries, for Vaca Muerta, and of course to irrigate the more than 70,000 productive hectares of the Valley depends on them.
Despite this, something that is established as the consumptive uses of damsan agreement on the use of water was not reached between the provinces and the Nationand in fact, the AIC ensures that the current government has already anticipated that for them the priority will bethe other way around, power generation.
“We got rid of Spain, but not Buenos Aires,” was the phrase summed up by a sector leader in this discussion that has been going on for 30 years, between the provinces and the Nation over the use of such an important element, such as water.
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