Any company willing to add renewable energies to its business activity, or any family willing to add renewable energies to their home is subject to many regulations currently in force. To begin with, it is important to define whether your installation will be connected to the main electricity supply or not.
Off-Grid
If your installation is not to be connected to the electricity supply, for instance, because it will be located in the middle of the countryside, it will be referred to as an OFF-GRID installation. No specific regulation applies in this case, which means that the installation can be carried out with no restrictions, as no special authorization or approval from any power distributor or state entity is required.
On-Grid
If your installation is to be connected to the electricity supply, it will be referred to as an ON-GRID installation, and it will have to comply with certain regulations that will depend on your annual energy consumption or your user category.
User Types
The user category is based on the average annual energy consumption, described as follows.
GREAT USER ENABLED (GUE)
The average annual electric power consumption of a great user is equal to or exceeds 300 KW.
The regulations applicable to these users are Act No. 26190, Act No. 27191 and Resolution 281/17, which creates the Renewable Energies Futures Market (MATER, Mercado a Término de las Energías Renovables). The list of GUEs is published in the national inspection agency website in charge of controlling electricity distribution. See
National Act 27191 sets forth that users included in this category are required to gradually add renewable energies to their electricity grid. The following chart shows the gradual requirements to be met.
GENERATOR-USER
The average annual electric power consumption of a generator-user is lower than 300 KW.
The regulations applicable to users whose annual consumption is lower than 300 KW is called Distributed Generation and it is set forth in National Act No. 27424 and in provincial regulations. In fact, the regulations applicable depend on the geographical location of each project.
- National Act No. 27424 is enforced in the following provinces: CABA, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Córdoba, Jujuy, La Rioja, Mendoza, Neuquén, San Juan, Río Negro, Tierra del Fuego and Tucumán.
- The following provinces have their own regulations in place: Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, La Pampa, Misiones, Río Negro, Salta, San Luis and Santa Fe.
Generator User Categories
- 1. Small (SGU)
- . Power of the Distributed Generation Equipment: Up to 3 kW
- . Connection Type: Low Voltage
- 2. Medium (MGU)
- . Power of the Distributed Generation Equipment: Between 3 and 300 kW
- . Connection Type: Low or Medium Voltage
- 3. Great (GGU)
- . Power of the Generation Distributed Equipment: Between 300 kW and 2 MW
- . Connection Type: Low or Medium Voltage
Some details included in National Act No. 27424
Users of the electric power distribution network have the right to install equipment for the generation distributed from renewable sources with a lower or equal power to the power they have hired from the Distributor, as long as they have the authorization required and they do not exceed a 2 MW limit.
The National Register of Renewable Energies Generator Users (RENUGER, Registro Nacional de Usuarios Generadores de Energías Renovables) is created within the Under-secretariat in charge. This entity keeps a record of all the projects of distributed generation from renewable sources (GD EERR, Generación Distribuida de Energías Renovables) that have obtained the corresponding Generator-User Certificate to be included in the Regime.
The installation and connection of Distributed Generation Equipment should be carried out in such a way that, when operated at the same time as the electric power supply, it does not affect:
- People safety,
- The users’ facilities
- Proper operation of the distribution grid and
- The national electric power system as a whole.
The installation of Distributed Generation Equipment should be performed and supervised by Certified Technicians.
Administrative proceedings for the connection to be authorized shall be carried out by the user through a Public Access Digital Platform provided by the Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency Under-Secretariat (SSERyEE, Subsecretaría de Energía Renovable y Eficiencia Energética).
The National Energy Secretariat has a website available with information about the regulations applicable. See
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Net Invoice Balance
The electric power user that generates renewable energy becomes a Generator-User.
Generator-users have the right to:
- Generate their own energy
- Feed the electric power supply managed by the electric power distributor with the energy generated by them if they do not need it or use it.
The system aims at reaching a net invoice balance between the generator-user and the local distributor based on the amount of energy used/fed into the system.
In this system, the distributor purchases the renewable energy at the same price it would pay to another generator, and sells this energy at this price, plus the distribution added value.