The sector with the highest electricity consumption in the province of Santa Fe – identified with the acronym GUMA in the technical language of the sector – showed in March 2024 a sharp drop in its demand for megawatts compared to the same month of 2023.
In its monthly technical reports section, the Association of Electrical Energy Distributors of the Argentine Republic presents statistical tables that measure the demand for the month of March of the so-called Large Users. With a detail by province that contains, in the case of Santa Fe, both what the Epe delivers to that group of customers, as well as the requirements of those industries and businesses that directly buy from the generators in the wholesale electricity market.
In the electrical system, consumers are divided into two large groups: those who can only be supplied by the monopolistic distributor in their area (the Epe or service cooperatives, for example) and those who can choose to purchase it for enormous quantities and even sign supply contracts with generation plants. Furthermore, within this “select” group of users there are categories of Large Major Users (GUMA) and Large Minor Users (GUME).
What Adeera’s charts show is that precisely the clients who consume the most are the ones who dropped the most. In March 2023, 39 GUMA users needed 200 megawatts/hour; In the same month of this year, the now 40 GUMA users of Santa Fe required 132.1MWh. With the large minor demands (GUME) there were no changes.
The detail is relevant because it speaks of the economic situation that large companies are experiencing in the country and in particular in the province of Santa Fe. Due to its size in the electricity market at the national level, the one on the map of the boot can only be compared with Córdoba (which is somewhat minor). In the same comparison from March 2023 to March 2024, the demand for GUMA in the Mediterranean province grew slightly and the same for GUME.
In the Province of Buenos Aires (without considering its suburbs), there were also drops in the Large Major Users when they fell from 371 MWh to 337 MWh, but the decrease is much less pronounced than in Santa Fe. And finally, in the capital and Greater Buenos Aires there were increases among the largest and slight decreases among the minors, always among the Large Users.
Context
The drop in demand for electrical energy in Santa Fe during last March was, considering all users, more pronounced than at the national level. This was reported by the statistics of Cammesa and the Provincial Energy Company, which were released last week.
Compared to March 2023, the Epe distributed -15.7% last month. But if large consumers are added to the province, the collapse is -20%. Throughout the country, consumption among residential, commercial and industrial users decreased by an average of -14.6%.
The provincial company indicated that last March 1,090,965 MWh were distributed, with an average temperature of 23.4°; On the other hand, in the same month of 2023, 1,293,775 were needed with the thermometer at 25.9° on average. They are about 202 thousand megawatts less compared to March 2023 when an extraordinary increase of 40% compared to March 2022 had been experienced (with very low rates and high temperatures).
Solar energy covered 2.8% of the electricity demand throughout the country
The installed capacity of solar-based energy reached 1,454.5 MW of enabled power, which covers 2.8% of the energy needs of the entire country.
A report from the Wholesale Electricity Market Management Company Sociedad Anónima (Cammesa) corresponding to March of this year shows the growth in the use of this technology within renewable energies. In total, these support 16.37% of all requirements.
Within renewables, wind energy reaches 11.47; photovoltaics growing 2.8%; hydraulics 1.29% and bioenergy 0.83%.
Throughout the country there are 54 solar parks in commercial operation, with 4,341,461 panels installed, of which 99.39% are “single-axis”, 0.57% fixed and 0.04% mixed. This distinction allows for greater or lesser efficiency to receive more sunlight and thus generate more time.
Cammesa recalls that the installed renewable power is 16,782 MWh. Throughout the Argentine territory during March the demand was 11,644,188 Mwh. Even the preponderance of large hydroelectric plants is decisive, with 10,835 MW (64.5%) of installed capacity. It is followed by wind, 3,706 MW (22%); photovoltaic, 1,462 MW (8.7%); and hydroelectric plants of less than 50 MW, 502 MW (2.9%); and bioenergy, 277 MW (1.6%).
