Argentina-Bolivia interconnection plans receive boost

A planned power interconnection between Argentina and Bolivia has reached an important milestone, after energy authorities in the former country greenlighted the dispatch infrastructure.

Argentina's power regulator Enre has granted a certificate of convenience and public need to 70km of 2x132kV lines, which will run from the border node to the Tartagal substation in Salta province. The latter will connect to the country's grid.

Argentine wholesale power market administrator Cammesa and Bolivia's state power company Ende must now submit a copy of the construction, operation and maintenance contract signed with the future concessionaire, together with a request to secure the concession.

Cammesa and Ende also must submit environmentally-approved documents and the definitive route to Enre before starting works on the Argentine side.

Earlier this year, Bolivia's energies minister Rafael Alarcón announced that construction of the 40km Bolivian stretch of the Juana Azurduy de Padilla interconnection was underway.

Bolivian President Evo Morales said previously that the goal was to begin exporting power to Argentina in 2019.