Argentina's battery storage tender confirmed a scenario few anticipated. With over 8,000 MW offered for a mere 700 MW to be awarded , the AlmaSADI tender drove prices to unprecedented levels in the local storage market , with projects starting at USD 7,397/MW month and others reaching USD 12,500/MW month.
"We are pleased with the level of competition. The prices that were ultimately offered were all consistent with that level of competition. The set of offers was surprising," stated Juan Luchilo , general manager of CAMMESA, during the "It Had to Be Said and It Was Said" streaming event by Energía Estratégica .
“I was expecting more competitive prices on larger projects, which ultimately didn't happen. Although it depends a lot on the starting conditions of each project and what competitive advantage it achieved,” he added.
The difference between the most competitive proposals cannot be explained solely by the oversupply of power; some projects started with concrete advantages, such as having transformer stations or already developed infrastructure, but that is not the underlying explanation.
"When you look at the overall lowest prices, I think something different emerges." That "something different," according to the interviewee, has a name: market maturity.
Why? Several companies joined AlmaSADI after several years of developing renewable energy parks, consolidating technical teams and a medium- to long-term strategic vision.
"These are not newcomers to the market. They have been very aggressive in renewables and now also in storage. The important thing is that the group of players that have participated in renewables and that are now participating in storage have completed between 80% and 90% of the projects they presented," Luchilo emphasized.
Another novel element of the process was the incentive provided for those who bid below the average awarded price, since the mechanism recognizes approximately 25% of the difference between the bid price and the final average, which is equivalent to about USD 200 extra per MW in some cases.
"It's a way of rewarding those who made a greater competitive effort," summarizes the general manager of CAMMESA, although he clarified that "it doesn't significantly alter the economic outcome, but it introduces an interesting signal" for future tenders.
Beyond AlmaSADI, the executive framed this initiative within a long-term policy. The incorporation of storage is part of the Additional Reliability Reserve Service (SerCa) scheme, designed to accelerate investments in firm capacity alongside thermal generation, hybrid projects, and hydroelectric infrastructure, in a system where demand continues to grow while part of the generation fleet ages.
“We are not thinking exclusively about batteries, but about storage, thermal generation, hybrid projects, hydroelectric projects, or any technology capable of providing firm power at the lowest possible cost,” he stressed.
“Storage and hybrid projects have very short construction times, while thermal generation requires considerably longer timeframes. Ideally, we should move towards a system where competition naturally determines prices and the most efficient technologies,” he insisted.
From analysis to the field: what those who finished highest in AlmaSADI have to say
Luchilo's conclusions resonate with several of the players who would carry out the projects awarded in the simulation developed with CAMMESA's tool. Although each company analyzes the process from a different perspective, they all agree on one point: the competition far exceeded expectations .
However, during the streaming event, it had to be said and it was said, they also provided new elements to understand why the price dispersion was so wide and how the BESS market will evolve in Argentina.
At 360Energy , a company that could acquire 78 MW BESS spread across three projects, the highly competitive scenario was part of the financial models from the outset.
"We always thought that 700 MW would be awarded for less than USD 9,000 per MW month. We went with what we believed were winning bids and received offers for around USD 8,700 per MW month, except for Nonogasta. But we are still waiting for the formal award ," said Juan Pablo Alagia , the company's Development and Technology Manager.
"I was surprised by both the lowest and highest prices. And I was also surprised that some larger-scale projects didn't submit more competitive bids," he said, alluding in his analysis to his expectation that the bidding would ultimately focus on seven or eight projects of approximately 100 MW.
On the Aluar side (the simulation gave them 50 MW in one project), the reading incorporates a technical variable that complements the analysis carried out by CAMMESA,
“The bidding process was a real success. We would have liked to award more projects; our goal was to achieve greater participation, and we were quite competitive. We had two projects that particularly interested us, and we understand that one of them (BESS Goya) will be awarded,” stated Gabriel Vendrell , Energy Resources Manager.
He also acknowledged that the lower values surprised him, but stated that these price levels fall below the minimum rates of return that Aluar could accept.
And based on the work done during the preparation of the bids, Aluar reached a conclusion that could influence future calls for tenders: “Considering current battery values and costs associated with the electrical infrastructure, we conclude that today a 50 MW project connected at 33 kV can be more competitive than a 100 MW project connected at 132 kV.”
Meanwhile, at Intermepro , the main surprise was the aggressiveness of some of the bids. "With values as low as some that appeared in this tender, I've honestly never seen anything like it," stated its CEO, Gonzalo Luoni .
“Furthermore, construction deadlines are now perfectly achievable. Large factories already consider Argentina an attractive market,” he continued, anticipating that the company will seek to replicate in the country the hybrid systems model it is already developing in Mexico and the United States to supply large industrial consumers.
The perspective from the construction phase supports this assessment. COARCO , which is currently building around 240 MW of BESS projects awarded to Central Puerto and YPF Luz in the previous AlmaSADI auction , also believes that the deadlines set by the tender are fully achievable.
"We don't foresee any major complexities from an execution standpoint. The important thing is to be prepared," stated Marcelo Palacio , Commercial Manager of New Business.
The executive explained that the challenge lies not in the technology itself, but in the coordination of disciplines and prior planning: "We are developing all the engineering using digital models and BIM systems because there is practically no room for error."
With the official award scheduled for July 8 , the market will finally learn which projects will win the contracts. Beyond that outcome, AlmaSADI has already sent a signal that goes beyond this call for proposals : the next competition among developers will not be defined solely by the cost of the equipment, but by the ability to integrate financing, engineering, infrastructure, execution, and long-term strategy into a single bid.