Argentina’s first large-scale battery tender has produced a clear cost reference for storage. Financial bids clustered well below the government’s ceiling, revealing an early price curve for utility-scale batteries in the country’s power system.
The Energy Secretariat and market operator CAMMESA opened economic bids on 24 June for battery energy storage services across critical nodes of the Argentine Interconnected System. Offers ranged from US$7,397/MW-month to the maximum allowed US$12,500/MW-month. This confirmed a wide spread in developer expectations and nodal competition. The weighted average bid came in at around US$10,568.4/MW-month — around 15.5% below the cap. That signals developers are prepared to contract capacity at prices materially under the regulatory ceiling. This average is based on the 232 qualified proposals that advanced to the economic stage. Those proposals represent about 8.2–8.3GW of potential storage capacity against an initial procurement target of 700MW.
A deep queue of projects and a visible price curve
Argentina has cleared 232 of 235 bids, leaving more than 8GW of battery projects in contention for a first-round award covering roughly 700MW of capacity. The volume of qualified bids is almost twelve times the reference target. That underlines strong interest from both domestic and international players. The AlmaSADI tender requires new battery systems able to deliver at least four consecutive hours of discharge. Systems must provide capacity, operating reserves, and short-term services to the wholesale market.
The detailed results begin to form a price curve by region. Weighted average prices vary across network zones — from roughly US$9,916.7/MW-month in the Central San Luis area to about US$11,194.3/MW-month in the northeast Chaco and Formosa nodes. Those differences reflect grid constraints and competitive intensity. At the bottom of the range, a US$7,397/MW-month offer stands out. BNamericas reports that this lowest bid was submitted by Genneia, described as Argentina’s largest clean energy generator. At the top end, bids hit the US$12,500/MW-month ceiling. That indicates some developers still see value at the cap, particularly in more constrained locations.
For investors, this spread offers more than a headline number. It shows how developers price risk across nodes with varying grid conditions. It also shows how quickly competition can compress margins in areas with better-understood demand and infrastructure. It suggests that scale and portfolio effects matter. Large players with existing generation and trading operations appear ready to bid aggressively to secure early positions in storage.
Pipeline beyond the first 700MW
The government has framed AlmaSADI as a first step towards integrating batteries across multiple regions, excluding the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. The Energy Secretariat has previously indicated that the 700MW procurement could support around US$700mn of investment. That implies roughly US$1mn/MW for this initial tranche. However, with about 8.3GW of capacity qualified, authorities now have a sizeable queue of projects to draw on for follow-on rounds.
Sector specialists report that policymakers are considering semi-annual rounds to add more batteries. Those rounds would use around 7,000MW of capacity left over from the AlmaSADI process, keeping many current bidders in contention for future awards. This would effectively turn AlmaSADI from a one-off auction into a rolling procurement channel. It offers developers and financiers a clearer line of sight on future volumes. It also positions storage as a core tool for grid reliability and renewable integration, rather than a niche pilot.
If confirmed, regular rounds would support portfolio planning and capital deployment. Developers could time manufacturing and financing cycles to upcoming tenders. Lenders and funds could build exposure across multiple auctions rather than a single binary event.
For institutional investors and strategists, AlmaSADI now acts as a reference point for Argentine battery economics and policy intent. The next focus will be on award decisions in July, the geographic spread of winning bids, and any formal move towards semi-annual tenders that tap the remaining project pipeline. Those signals will show how fast Argentina plans to scale storage — and which players are best positioned to lead the build-out.
