Decentralizing decisions in Argentina

But there is growing concern about the efficiency and fairness of transmission investment rules: in some regions lack of transmission investments has led to outages and thus to reliability problems. More than 90 percent of power outages in the system have their origins in transmission problems that could be substantially avoided with increased investment. The design of a regulatory framework for transmission is challenging. Transmission is an essential facility and whoever controls it can exercise a lot of market power. Reliability is key to the operating efficiency of a transmission network.1 Regulation of transmission must induce optimal management of existing assets and optimal investments in generation and transmission. In countries that have established competition in bulk and retail markets, transmission regulation policies are aimed at: ▪ Guaranteeing open access to the network. ▪ Ensuring fair and efficient pricing. ▪ Protecting ownership rights to transmission assets (for both incumbents and newcomers). ▪ Establishing network use protocols and coordination and compensation mechanisms. Transmission Investment in Competitive Power Systems Decentralizing decisions in Argentina