Demand Management in Argentina: Opportunities for Large Customers

The Secretariat of Energy has published Resolution 379/2025, which creates the Energy Demand Management Program. With this measure, Argentina takes a significant step towards incorporating demand as an active tool in the operation of the electrical system, joining practices already applied in other more advanced markets.

A Different Type of Reserve: When Consumption Becomes a Resource

The program is voluntary, scheduled, and remunerated, and proposes that large users of the Wholesale Electricity Market (MEM) and distribution companies can offer to reduce their electricity consumption during critical times. Instead of relying solely on generation, the system will be able to call upon these users to temporarily decrease their load, thus contributing to grid balance.

CAMMESA will be responsible for administering these offers and activating them when the system requires it. The logic is simple: if demand has the capacity to be flexible with its consumption during peak periods, that released capacity functions as another reserve, just like generation plants.

Who Can Join and How the Operation Will Work

The program is aimed at large users with contracted capacities equal to or greater than 300 kW, who have hourly consumption metering. Those who adhere will be recognized as Adhering Users and can commit to reductions for up to 14 days per year, with a maximum of five hours per day. The calls will be concentrated in periods of highest seasonal demand: the summer months (December to March) and the winter months (June to August).

The design allows CAMMESA to call up to ten days per year, while distribution companies will have the possibility of activating up to four additional days, provided these reductions are useful for the MEM. Offers are presented competitively, sorted by price and available capacity, similar to how generation dispatch is currently organized.

A Scheme with Incentives and Penalties

The resolution establishes a clear economic scheme. Adhering Users will receive a fixed charge that can reach $1,000 per megawatt per month, plus a variable charge that pays for the energy effectively not consumed (MWh) at the price offered by the Adhering User. To incentivize reliability, additional bonuses are granted for compliance, while non-compliance is heavily penalized and may even lead to temporary exclusion from the program.

Distribution companies, on their part, will receive a technical management fee of USD 30/MW/month, intended to cover the costs of metering, administration, and system adjustments necessary for users to participate.

Towards a More Efficient and Flexible System

With this program, the State formally introduces a demand response mechanism into the Argentine electricity market. This tool not only strengthens the system's reliability but also enables companies to obtain an economic benefit from intelligent management of their consumption. In other words, energy efficiency is no longer solely a savings strategy and becomes an asset that can generate revenue.

Resolution 379/2025 thus marks a paradigm shift: large energy consumers are no longer mere passive recipients of the service but are integrated into the system's operation as allies in grid stability. For companies with energy management capabilities, this new scenario opens the door to unprecedented opportunities in the Argentine electricity market.