The State puts 16 high-voltage works out to tender, and six of them run through four of the five provinces

The Government published the National Plan of Works to Expand the Electricity Transmission Grid: 16 works that the Secretaría de Energía labels «of urgent and priority execution», more than USD 6,600 million and 5,610 km of 500 kV lines, all under the model of a public-works concession financed by private capital. The first one is AMBA I —270 km of new lines at 500, 220 and 132 kV, a new transformer station at Plomer, USD 800 million, some 2,000 MW of additional serviceable demand, an IDB guarantee in the structuring, and a winner entitled to apply for RIGI— and its tender has already been called. ⭐ SIX of the 16 works touch four of the five provinces in the observatory, with this literal routing from the official annex: work 5, 500 kV line Puerto Madryn (Chubut) – Choele Choel (RÍO NEGRO) – Bahía Blanca (Buenos Aires); work 7B, WESTERN alternative of the 500 kV line CH Kirchner (Santa Cruz) – Futaleufú (Chubut) – Piedra del Águila (RÍO NEGRO); work 9, 500 kV line Rodeo – Chaparro (SAN JUAN) – La Rioja Sur (La Rioja); work 12, 500 kV line Lavalle – Chumbicha (CATAMARCA); work 13, 500 kV line Chaparro (SAN JUAN) – Antofagasta de la Sierra (CATAMARCA) – La Puna (SALTA); and work 14, 500 kV international interconnection Yaguaca (Bolivia) – Salvador Mazza (SALTA) – San Juancito (Jujuy). The other ten are AMBA I and II, Vivoratá–Plomer, Plomer–O'Higgins, the Comodoro Rivadavia Oeste transformer station, the EASTERN alternative Río Santa Cruz–Puerto Madryn, Río Diamante–Charlone–O'Higgins, Malvinas–San Francisco–Santo Tomé, the El Espinillo transformer station (Tucumán) and the interconnections with Paraguay and with Tierra del Fuego. ⚠️ NEUQUÉN is not named in any of the 16: the Piedra del Águila station, on the Limay river, is labeled «(Río Negro)» on the official map. ⚠️ And the difference that decides what can be claimed: of the 16, the ONLY one with a tender called is AMBA I. The other fifteen are listed and routed, with no call, no bidding documents and no date. verif · Aug 11, 2026 ↗

August 12, 2026, the date Resolucion 202/2026 was published in the Official Gazette. Article 5, subsection c sets the submission of bids at 120 calendar days from that publication, at 11:00 — that is, December 10, 2026, the date that governs the AMBA I calendar. verif · Aug 12, 2026 ↗

Directly, whoever wants to take the concession: high-voltage construction firms and consortia, transmission companies and funds financing the concession, plus the banks and insurers that put the guarantee together. Below them, the supply chain a 500 kV line buys from, which is where an SME comes in: tower erection and conductor stringing, foundations and earthworks, access roads and switchyards, site camps and accommodation, special transport, surveying and testing, right-of-way and environmental management, and once energised, line inspection and maintenance. And at the other end, whoever CANNOT grow today for lack of grid: the lithium and copper projects of the Puna and the Vaca Muerta corridor, which are what the line is meant to supply. thesis · Aug 11, 2026