In a first installment we address the energy crisis that our Province is going through as a whole, it is time to address and break down a disturbing and controversial issue: rates, of enormous importance for users and of great socioeconomic impact.-
The data found in a search carried out in the tariff tables of the NEA provinces shows us that the Province of Misiones is subject to tariffs that almost double the value with the rest, we also verified that we suffer monthly increases, while the rest have quarterly adjustments. Let’s see.
As a result of these “strange” points, we proceeded to investigate and discovered some issues that we want to explain to citizens:
Law 24,065 of 1991 establishes the rules for the administration and operation of the Argentine Electrical System.
Among the points regulated by this law is the establishment of the rate. In its article 40 it establishes that the transportation and distribution service will be offered at fair and reasonable rates and that companies must work efficiently.
Following this law as a reference we find Resolution 61/92 of the Secretary of Energy of the Nation from 1992 which establishes: “….Distributor prices will be determined for six-month seasonal periods beginning May 1 and November 1 of each year. The price will be set according to a binomial tariff, with an energy price per tariff period, based on the average marginal cost of the System, and a fixed charge for power….“, keep saying “….The price will remain fixed for the first three months. After half of the semester, the Agency in Charge of Dispatch (OED) will update the programming for the remaining three months, the data and results of which will be agreed upon with the member companies of the MEM Wholesale Electricity Market….” she closes “….If the Secretariat of Electric Energy considers that the resulting deviation is significant with respect to the original forecast, it may order to modify by resolutionprices to Distributors for the rest of the period…“
In this order we have resolution 7/2024 of the Secretary of Energy of the Nation that establishes the directives and justifications to establish the Stabilized Price of Energy (SEP) for the period from February to April 2024.
In the province of Misiones, the MINISTRY OF TREASURY, FINANCE, WORKS AND PUBLIC SERVICES (MHFOySP) with its resolution No. 164, (which contemplates the draft resolution of File No. 3400-158-24 registration of the Undersecretary of Works and Services Public and entitled “Project of Provincial Electricity Rate Increase Resolution”; PEN Decree No. 332/22, SE Resolution No. 467/22, Resolution No. 46/23 (MHFOySP Reg.), PEN No. 55/23 and the Resolution of the Ministry of Energy (SE) No. 7/24 that we already mentioned) establishes the price of the tariff for users in the province.
The problem begins here: the prices established by resolution 07/2024 Secretary of Energy of the Nation, Ministry of Economy (RESOL-2024-7-APN-SE-MEC) do not correspond to the prices established by the province of Misiones.
The Stabilized Energy Price (SEP) as well as the reference price of power established by CAMMESA (Compania Administradora Mercado Mayorista Eléctrico Sociedad Anónima) is shown in the figure below.
The same resolution from the National Secretary of Energy establishes the transportation value at $1,265/MWh.
As established by Law 24065, transporters and distributors will be remunerated for the use of their assets.
In other words we can say that the Rate is made up of three parts:
Price of Stabilized Energy (PEE) + Transportation Value (VAT) + Distribution Value (VAD)
that is to say RATE=PEE+VAT+VAD This formula defines the price of the rate, disaggregating the detail allows us to understand and substantiate why EMSA applies a high rate, well above the average and they also do this with a childish argument: it is the fault of another (in this case Nation).-
The resolution of the MHFOySP of Misiones is based on a statement that the monomic price of energy is $52,392.4/MWH (a value that we could not verify in official sources) and the reference price of power is $2682,088/MW.
These prices are established for each Mega Watt hour (energy) and Mega Watt hour (power), so that these numbers resemble those of our energy bill we must divide them by 1000 (to obtain kilo Watt hours for energy and kilo Watts for power) , so we have that 1kWh of energy would be worth, according to the price that EMSA says it uses as a reference, RATE=$52,392/kWh + $1,265/kWh + VAD.
Core of the problem:
If we take as a reference the rate for an EMSA residential user, for example Category 1 without subsidy is $112,541/kWh, THIS LAST VALUE IS ABSOLUTELY ARBITRARY, it does not match the parameters and hides a BRUTAL RATE that belongs to the Provincial Company which sets this value far excessively above the average of the NEA Provinces, for example, this leaves us with a result that the VAD (Value Added of Distribution) of EMSA is $58,884/kWh, which means that EMSA charges more for their cable service than the generating companies for producing electrical energy, total nonsense.
This is the point that raises distrust and the crux of the issue: how do you arrive at the value? Why is it so high? What deficit are they trying to cover? A possible explanation already in the realm of conjecture could be that it is to cover the cost of fuel involved in the patch generators that inject energy into the provincial system or to cover other types of expenses that have nothing to do with the management of the company.-
It becomes relevant because we have been experiencing strong MONTHLY increases (which is against the law) since October 2023 that do not correspond to the increases established by the Nation.
Another comparison parameter is the rates of the NEA provinces that do respect the quarterly programming and where the rate for the same category 1 is:
Currents $74.12/kWh
Chaco $68.4998/kWh
Formosa $84.6577/kWh
Does all this lead us to ask the question of what is happening in Misiones?
We cannot help but remember that we have lived through the last 25 worst years in terms of energy in the Province, where the lack of planning and investment brought the electrical system to the brink of collapse. In the last 8 years, the province received the installation of Diesel generating sets, known as delivery groups, as emergency aid. Furthermore, in the last two years we received two new installations of Diesel generators in missions (as polluting and inefficient as they are, while official propaganda sells an ecological province by installing golden pieces of paper in some parts of the province).
These generators were supplied with “free” fuel received from ENARSA, but it is public knowledge that ENARSA and CAMMESA are not complying with their contracts and that ENARSA has not delivered fuel to Misiones since October, a point that coincides with the first rate increases.
The question, is the green province charging its citizens the most expensive rate in the country to finance the boondoggle party to support energy whims and those of others?
As a final reflection we add a particularity in the matter of Consumer Defense (rights incorporated by the reform of the National Constitution of the year 1994), a subject that has not been fulfilled from start to finish in our Province (here Users and Consumers in matters of electrical energy directly DO NOT EXIST) The entity in charge of ensuring the quality of the service offered by the EMSA company and the cooperatives, as well as the modest tariffs, is the EPRE (Provincial Energy Regulatory Entity), which in our province has not been regulated, despite the fact that The regulations date back to 1995 when sanctions Law XN° 17 (formerly Law 3270) debt of the Provincial Executive Branch, The Law is not followed, again.- That is why users are defenseless against constant abuses, such as outages lasting several days, the imposition of sky-high rates and other abuses such as clients doing the work that is EMSA’s obligation.
In a future approach we will discuss the discussion on the energy matrix.-
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