Isolated power in Catamarca's puna: operating and maintaining the diesel plants and converting them to hybrid
Energy is 30 % of the operating cost of a brine lithium mine: USD 943 per tonne of carbonate, the second-largest expense after reagents and above all of labor. In Catamarca, two of the four operations still run on diesel above 4,000 meters of altitude. The other two already left: Fénix with a dedicated 135-kilometer gas pipeline and Tres Quebradas with its own 132 kV line unconf. That makes this market far smaller than it looks — and its shape is about to flip, because Sal de Vida's technical report already sets the goal of 30 % of its first stage's energy coming from the sun, and across all of Catamarca's puna there is not a single installed battery reported by any source.
This niche's window opens and closes at the same time, and reading that correctly is the whole point. It opens because two operations burn diesel every single day and none of the three announced high-voltage lines has a meter built.See the clocks that are running, one by one
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What the market is made of
This niche's split is harsh and worth seeing before investing: most of the energy bill is not contractable. The diesel molecule is bought from the oil company and the equipment is controlled by the brand. What is left —and it is all this figure counts— is operating and maintaining what is already installed, and then converting it.
The equipment and original spares —gensets, turbines, switchboards and their warranty service— which the manufacturer controls and which are also imported. Plus the supply of the diesel molecule, which is a contract with the oil company.
Operating and maintaining the existing plants, the on-site fuel farm with its consumption telemetry, and the engineering and construction of the conversion to hybrid with batteries.
The maintenance contract for a single plant, with a base in the area and spares in stock. It is the cheapest door: it does not require buying the equipment, it is billed as a retainer and the customer already has the problem.
Who really pays?
There are three payers and they differ from one another — different purchasing process, different timeline and different collection risk:
It is the highest-margin contract in the business because what is sold is not a repair: it is that the plant does not stop. A plant down at an evaporation operation does not cost a day, it costs a process window. Today that layer is handled by the operator itself with plant staff.
Sal de Vida's technical report already sets the goal of 30 % of its first stage's energy coming from the sun prob. The reference case is Lindero, in Salta: 40 % less diesel prob; the annual saving in dollars is not published unconf.
This payer is not the mine and almost nobody looks at it. The Salar del Hombre Muerto mining trust already financed both existing parks —Antofagasta de la Sierra and El Peñón, the latter awarded to a contractor with a tender budget of around USD 1.5 M in 2019— prob and would have two more unbuilt unconf. It tenders rather than takes quotes: the process is public procurement.
Which projects move this demand
Lithium brine project in the Salar del Hombre Muerto (western zone), to produce 12,000 t/yr of lithium carbonate equivalent…
see the project →Expansion (Phase 1B) of the historic Fénix lithium-carbonate project in the Salar del Hombre Muerto, operated by Rio Tinto via Minera del Altiplano…
see the project →Tres Quebradas stage 2: plant and infrastructure for 40,000 t/year of lithium carbonate via direct extraction (DLE), per art…
see the project →When the window opens
The grid reaches the puna one job at a time and with different destinations: supplying the villages is one thing, supplying a lithium plant is another. The 500 kV Chaparro – Antofagasta de la Sierra – Punta – Cobos line appears under that exact name on the list of priority works since May 2025 and still has no tender called. The one that is moving is a different one, and they should not be confused: a medium-voltage line that will integrate the Puna into the provincial power system (Villa Vil, Barranca Larga, Laguna Blanca, El Peñón and Antofagasta de la Sierra), with its continuation contracted in March 2026 and completion expected in the second half of 2027. ⚠️ For that work we found no award act published, no tender documents, no amount and no contractor, and the official release does not say whom it supplies. These four numbers tell you which of the two is happening.
See the evidence
See the evidence
See the evidence
See the evidence
There are three routes announced to the same destination and none with a tender called. (1) The private line that Central Puerto and YPF Luz agreed to study and develop in January 2025: their own press release speaks of some 140 kilometres extendable to 350 and of USD 250 to 400 million verif, and it gives no voltage, no capacity and no date.
See the evidence
The buyer itself published it: Sal de Vida's technical report sets the goal of 30 % of its first stage's energy coming from its own solar plant.
See the evidence
TGN's project adds up to some 300 km of 12-inch pipe, 1.5 million cubic meters a day and USD 370 M of investment, according to its general manager in November 2024 prob press, on a route from Susques to Antofagasta de la Sierra.
See the evidence
Of Catamarca's four lithium operations, two left diesel before this niche existed: Fénix with a dedicated 135 km gas pipeline and Tres Quebradas with its own 132 kV line unconf.
See the evidence
See the remaining 2 risks
Sal de Vida is in commissioning and its first production is in the second half of 2026; Hombre Muerto Oeste processed its first chloride on 28 May 2026.
See the evidence
The province's research declares it as a gap: the self-generation capacity in MW of Fénix and Sal de Oro could not be confirmed. That is why this figure is built from the cost per tonne of product rather than from installed MW, which would be the natural route. If that capacity were published, the method could be redone from the other side and cross-checked.
The opportunity in depth
The opportunity in depth
Operating and maintaining the plant, which is what the technical report itself leaves out of its figure. The reference energy cost is built as fuel plus depreciation of the equipment over seven years, and states verbatim that it does not include operator or labor. That layer exists, it gets paid for, and it has no declared Catamarca supplier.
Installing fuel tanks and dispensing at the site, with remote metering. Tanks, dispensing, metering and on-site consumption control. It is the part of diesel that really is a service —trunk haulage is counted by the outbound logistics sheet— and it is where a small firm gets in without buying an engine. And since January 2026 there is a calendar framing it: a provincial resolution establishes a winter procedure from 1 May to 30 September each year —or earlier, if local conditions warrant it— whose stated purpose includes planning fuel storage to sustain operations through periods of isolation.
Batteries, which do not exist anywhere in Catamarca's puna. The installed fleet —600.30 kW at Antofagasta de la Sierra, 300 kW plus 660 kW of diesel at El Peñón, and the private plants— reports no storage in any source. And the precedent next door is already measured: Lindero, in Salta, cuts 40 % of its diesel with 6 MWp and 12 MWh of batteries.
The two parks the province has still not built. The provincial distributor's plan has four parks for the Antofagasta department and two are done: Antofalla and La Ciénaga would be missing, a fact we have not confirmed. They would be paid for by the Salar del Hombre Muerto mining trust, which is a different buyer from the miner and with a different purchasing process.
When you get paid, and what blocks it
already in
split
Today the power plant is a mine asset and the mine runs it. A third party running it is precisely what the province's research declares to be the missing link: there is no generation, transmission or electrical maintenance layer sold as a service, even though it is the business's second-largest cost.
The genset, the turbine and the critical spare are imported, and the brand controls warranty service. That part is not contested: it is captive by design.
Awarded the El Peñón hybrid solar park —300 kW of photovoltaics and two 330 kW diesel gensets—, with a tender budget of around USD 1.5 M in 2019 prob. It is the only contractor with a published track record of hybrid generation built in Catamarca's puna, and the buyer for that job was the mining trust, not an operator.
It is the provincial distributor and the owner of both hybrid parks, as well as the builder of the 33 kV line that connects the Puna to the provincial system. It does not compete for the mining contract: it is the customer on the public side and the one tendering the two parks still missing.
The jobs it createsThe niche has a measured, published externality worth stating because it is the sales argument: the Antofagasta de la Sierra solar park saves around USD 140,000 a year in diesel and transport, and the Salta precedent at Lindero cuts 40 % of annual diesel and with it 10,630 tonnes of carbon dioxide.the detail on jobs and trades
calculate it
The number is our own estimate. The calculation, step by step, is below.
The full calculation, step by step
| Operation | How it is powered today | Counts |
|---|---|---|
| Fénix (Rio Tinto), 30 to 40 ktpa of carbonate | natural gas through a dedicated 135 km pipeline from Salar de Pocitos, plus its own electrical system unconf | NO |
| Tres Quebradas (Zijin-Liex), 20 to 40 ktpa | grid, through its own 132 kV, 50 km line from the ET Tinogasta substation, with two 60 MVA transformers unconf la línea de 132 kV que financia Liex une Tinogasta con Fiambalá y ninguna fuente dice que llegue al salar | NO |
| Sal de Vida Stage 1 (Rio Tinto), 15 ktpa | its own diesel generation; gas and solar declared «for later on» prob Rio Tinto annual report 2025 | YES |
| Hombre Muerto Oeste (Galan), 4 to 5.2 ktpa of LCE | diesel gensets plus its own solar park, authorized in the Phase 2 exploitation permit unconf | YES |
| Kachi (Lake), pre-FID | the supply study with YPF Luz concluded that the grid «is a viable solution» | NO — declared upside, not added |
Concentration Concentration is high on the equipment side and low on the service side, and that asymmetry is the way in. The genset, the turbine and the original spare are controlled by the brand and are not contested. But operating and maintaining the plant on site —what the reference technical report itself excludes in writing from its energy cost, «without operator or labor»— has no declared Catamarca supplier. The province's mining services chamber carries renewable energy in its own name, and the supplier chamber's map of business lines does not register a single member in instrumentation and automation. The only contractor with hybrid work built in the puna is a single one, and its buyer was the mining trust, not an operator.
The rule that moves it
Here the rule does not create the demand —the mine needs electricity with or without a law— but it decides who can invoice it and who pays for the public part:
See the underlying reading
The underlying policy that opens up this demand. It is the same inference declared by the rules and the program pillars pushing in this direction.
the asset leaves demand that does not expireSee the full legal grounds
See the full legal grounds
Where the number comes from
~USD 3.7 M/yr at the midpoint; the defensible band is USD 2.5-4.9 M/yr. It is small, and the reason is the finding: two of the four operations already left diesel
See the calculation, the variables and how it was validated
The figure is built from three published variables and one subtraction. Change one and the total recalculates.
The number rests on a few variables. The formula shows how it moves when each one changes; and each variable carries its freshness seal — how often it is worth revisiting. estim
The figure does not come from counting generators, because nobody publishes the installed self-generation capacity of the private plants and the province's own research declares it as a gap. It comes from a subtraction that is published: Sal de Vida's technical report puts energy at USD 943 per tonne of carbonate and, in another paragraph of the same document, fuel at USD 702. The difference —USD 241 per tonne— is everything that is not the diesel molecule: the equipment, its operation and its maintenance. That is all we count. Then we apply two cuts: Hombre Muerto Oeste does not produce carbonate but chloride concentrate, a less energy-intensive process, and both operations are starting up, so they get a ramp-up. And there is a cross-check we were not looking for and it closed: along this route the energy cost works out to USD 321 per MWh, and a different technical report —the Hombre Muerto Norte one— publishes USD 311 per MWh for the same type of plant. Two independent documents, 3 % apart. What we deliberately leave out is the diesel itself: it is around USD 13 M a year, but it is a purchase from the oil company and not a supplier business. ⚠️ And about the fuel figure we say what we know: we reopened the whole Sal de Vida report on 1 September 2026 and that figure is not in the document, even though this page attributed it to it. The energy figure of USD 943 per tonne is in its Table 21-2 and we opened it with our own eyes; the USD 702 of fuel we subtract from it is, until its origin turns up, our own assumption and not a figure from the report.
Coverage: CAPPROMIN's trade map, the provincial chamber of mining suppliers (19 trades and 123 memberships, with a 2023 cut-off: three members in electrical services and no trade for instrumentation and automation), and the membership list of CASEMICA & ER, the sector's other chamber · Sep 14, 2026 · not reviewed: the Re.P.E.M., which is the mandatory provincial register, publishes the total number of registrants but never the names; and no operator publishes who holds the operation and maintenance contract for its power plant
How to cite this figure: Despegue (2026). Isolated power in Catamarca's puna: operating and maintaining the diesel plants and converting them to hybrid · Catamarca. despegueargentina.com/en/catamarca/energia-aislada-puna-diesel · terms of use
Neighbouring markets2 markets in the same group, from USD 11 to USD 98 M a year
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