International

Bolivia and Argentina promote energy integration

Photo: Prensa Latina

June 1 |

The presidents of Bolivia and Argentina, Luis Arce and Alberto Fernández, respectively, lead today in the department of Tarija the inauguration of the 132 kV Juana Azurduy de Padilla international interconnection power line.

Fernandez arrived this Thursday at the Tarija airport of Yacuiba and went to the town of Yaguacua, where he held a meeting with his peer and host, and later both proceeded to inaugurate the electricity transmission line.

The energy supplier has a length of 120 kilometers (46.49 in Bolivia and 73.88 in Argentina) and connects the Yaguacua substation in Bolivia with the Tartagal substation in Argentina.)

This project will allow the transportation of electric energy from the Andean-Amazonian nation to the neighboring country with an estimated power of 120 megawatts (MW).

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The work required an investment of 364 million Bolivianos (US$364 million), concluded in March 2018 in Bolivia and in May 2019 on the Argentine side.

“It is an honor and a joy to receive in Yacuiba, Tarija, our brother president, Alberto Fernández, to deliver a work of great importance for our peoples,” Arce wrote on his Twitter account.

According to the news agency Télam, for Argentina “the import of energy from Bolivia results in an improvement in the voltage levels in the northern area (…), especially at hours of high demand”.

This exporting operation should have started in October 2019, and the works were interrupted in 2020, during the de facto government of Jeanine Áñez.

After the rescue of democracy with the electoral triumph of Arce that same year, in 2021, Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (ENDE) through its subsidiary ENDE Transmisión Argentina S.A. (ETASA), resumed the construction of the section in Argentine territory.

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The work was completed in October 2022, after which the line and generation testing stages were carried out.

On March 13 of this year, Bolivia began exporting, for the first time in bilateral history, 60 MW to Argentina with the possibility of reaching up to 120 MW.

Arce and Fernández are currently leading the inauguration ceremony in an evening attended by ministers of both nations, legislators, leaders of social organizations and neighbors of the Chaco region of Yaguacua.

Related Topics:Argentina Bolivia Integration

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