Bolivia foresees annual revenues of some US$200 million in electricity sales to Argentina

On average, the Bolivian Government projects revenues of about US$200 million a year from the export of electricity to Argentina, said Wednesday the Deputy Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Edgar Freddy Caero Ayala.

The Bolivian deputy minister told Xinhua that, on average, “we can talk about US$200 million dollars of income for the country from the sale of electricity to Argentina”.

Caero Ayala explained that the estimate is between 1,000 and 2,000 million Bolivianos (between US$143 and 287 million), “depending on the price per megawatt-hour (MWh)”.

He argued that this difference in fluctuation is because there is a time of the year in Argentina when the MWh costs 300 dollars, which for the official means an increase in income for Bolivia.

He mentioned that besides Argentina, other countries in the region are interested in the electricity produced by Bolivia.

The Bolivian Government considered “historic” the beginning of electricity exports to Argentina last March 13 through the Juana Azurduy de Padilla transmission line with 60 MW.

“This is a historical fact because Bolivia had never exported electricity before, and now markets are opened with the surpluses it produces”, stated the Vice Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energies.

The Juana Azurduy de Padilla power line is more than 120 kilometers long, connecting Argentina with Bolivia, and has an export potential of 120 MW, although it started with 60 MW.

Bolivia has a generation capacity of 3,600 MW, which supplies the internal demand of around 1,600 MW. The rest (2,000 MW) is surplus for export, according to information from the Vice-Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energies.

The Bolivian official emphasized that work is also being done on binational electricity interconnection projects to consolidate regional energy integration.

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