Updated Tuesday 2.10 p.m.
Argentina will have to schedule power outages over the summer, Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos has said.
Power outages have long been a challenge in the country, especially when summer demand spikes because of consumption from air conditioning and other cooling devices, but Francos’s bluntness surprised analysts.
“It’s thought that there’s going to be a summer with high temperatures, there’s going to be very high demand for electricity, and unfortunately, there hasn’t been any investment recently,” Francos told Radio Mitre on Sunday. “And so, there’s going to be a lack of generation, and some [power] cuts will have to be planned. Above all, we’ll have to make some agreements with productive sectors and industries.”
However, scheduled power cuts will only affect industries, Energy Secretary Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo clarified on Tuesday. He added that they are in talks with companies to implement an energy emergency plan during the summer, in which they will economically compensate industries that voluntarily reduce their use of electricity.
“We were never speaking about residential users,” Chirillo told Radio Mitre, referring to Francos’ comments. Speaking about large scheduled power cuts implemented decades ago in Argentina, he said “none of that is going to happen.”
Franco’s remarks come at a time when energy bills in Argentina are soaring as the government cuts power subsidies, a decision Francos justified. “Tariffs are going up because […] if the consumer doesn’t pay for it, then the state has to pay the cost, otherwise the generators don’t generate [electricity],” he said.
He argued that the increases would ultimately help tackle inflation because the government would not have to spend money on subsidies or print money.
Cecilia Garibotti, a former undersecretary for energy planning, pointed out that while Francos pinned the blame on the previous government, the Milei government has canceled energy projects. “Even House of Cards didn’t dare,” she wrote on X.
La Nación had reported on Sunday that the power cuts would affect households and industrial users. Chirillo, however, put the brakes on confirming this: “To schedule [residential] outages you would have to be very, very close to the date,” mentioning December to March as the probable time frame in which this decision would have to be potentially made.
During the Argentine summer, it is common for the power to go down, especially in Greater Buenos Aires. Outages can last for days at a time, although the situation has improved in recent years. They affect not only appliances such as fans, air conditioning units and fridges, but also pumps, leaving many homes without running water.
Previous governments have ended up at loggerheads with power companies over who is to blame for power outages. The Alberto Fernández government accused some companies of failing in their duty to provide a basic service. Last year, for example, Argentina’s National Electricity Regulatory Body (ENRE, by its Spanish initials) forced power company Edesur to pay billions of pesos in compensation to hundreds of thousands of users for outages suffered during the 2022-2023 heatwave. It also sued the company for fraud, abandonment of persons (a form of negligence charge in Argentina), and hindering the functioning of public services.
Power companies claim that state energy policies mean the power grid has suffered from years of chronic under-investment, and that low end user prices prevent them from carrying out the essential work needed.
The story has been updated to include Energy Secretary Eduardo Chirillo’s comments regarding who will be affected by the scheduled power cuts.