IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2016 - 47

Current Challenges and Future Opportunities
since the beginning of 2016, with a new government instituting radical changes in energy policy, the state has been
implementing some norms to regularize commodity prices
(fossil fuels and electricity) and to improve the regulation
of renewable energies, including many incentives for private
investors. one goal is for 8% of the energy matrix to be from
ncres by December 2017 and 20% by 2025, with requirements that big users (such as supermarkets and factories)
meet those percentages or face financial penalties.
within this new context, it is hoped that by normalizing
electricity tariffs, utilities can make technological investment plans aimed at improving efficiency in their distribution
networks; this would open a door to new control and smartmetering technologies, and even the inclusion of ncres.
to this end, some provinces have implemented regulations
for connecting to ncres, and others have given economic
incentives in the form of tariff rates, which include a net-balance fee to remunerate the ncres (such as solar phtovoltaic,
wind power, biomass, and mini-hydropower).

Conclusions
Latin american should be viewed as very promising for penetration of ncres, with 8% by 2020 and 20-25% by 2025
in most countries-and in countries like Uruguay and chile,
the percentage is higher.
incentives for ncres penetration are motivated primarily by the pressing overall energy deficit facing some countries and the uncertainty in hydroelectric generation, which is
exacerbated by the el niño phenomenon in the case of chile,
Brazil, colombia, and panama. second, and crucially, there
are economic factors, achieved through auctions, allowing
very competitive costs for both wind power and photovoltaic. (as mentioned at the beginning of the article, environmental impact runs a distant third.) regulatory incentives
include guidelines imposed by state enforcement agencies,
taxes, and, most importantly, the requirement that contractual demand for long-term energy should include minimum
percentages of nonconventional renewable generation.
these conditions are conducive to significant business
opportunities for ncres in Latin america; indeed, this
favorable business climate has existed for at least the last two
years (currently affected somewhat by temporary declines in
the price of oil and nG).
steps for introducing renewable energy at early stages
and for the short and medium term are being taken mainly
through farms of photovoltaic and wind power because these
can quickly incorporate massive generation, are competitive
in terms of cost, are being promoted through financial offers
by international organizations, and pose few major technical
difficulties. for later stages and in the long term, as distribution networks and clients require subsidies, new governing
rules for this type of generation and a new culture in the use
of this type of energy will need to develop.

september/october 2016

Latin america today poses challenges regarding transmission network planning and complementarity with other
generation sources if high participation is to be achieved
without compromising operational security and at the
same time ensuring economic dispatch and reduction of
the energy deficit caused by the randomness of renewable
primary resources. in fact, the financing of new projects
by international organizations is limited only by transmission capacity.

Acknowledgments
this work was supported by UnsJ-conicet and seciti
san Juan, argentina.

For Further Reading
t. De la torre, J. feltes, t. Gómez, and h. merrill, "Deregulation, privatization and competition transmission planning
under uncertainty," IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 14, no. 2,
pp. 460-465, 1999.
p. Gavela, s. p. chamba, r. reta, and a. vargas, "Guidelines for transmission expansion planning in a regional electricity market superposed to imperfect national markets," in
Proc. IEEE/PES 6th Latin America Conf. Exposition (t&DLa), montevideo, Uruguay, 2012, pp. 1-7.
e. e. Gaona, c. L. trujillo, and J. a. Guacaneme, "rural
microgrids and its potential application in colombia," Renew.
Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 51, pp. 125-137, nov. 2015.
J. moreno, c. rodríguez, and r. suesca, "Generación
híbrida de energía eléctrica como alternativa para zonas
no interconectadas," Ingeniería, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 57-63,
nov. 2006.
r. reta and a. vargas, "electricity tracing and loss allocation methods based on electric concepts," J. IEE Proc. Gener.
Transm. Distrib., vol. 148, no 6, pp. 518-522, nov. 2001.
D. m. ojeda-esteybar, r. G. rubio-Barros, o. añó, and
a. vargas, "integration of electricity and natural gas systems:
identification of coordinating parameters," in Proc. IEEE/
PES Latin America Transmission & Distribution Conf.
Exposition, medellin, colombia, 2014, pp. 1-8.

Biographies
Alberto Vargas is with the Universidad nacional de san
Juan, argentina.
Osvaldo R. Saavedra is with the Universidade federal
do maranhão, são Luís, Brazil.
Mauricio E. Samper is with the Universidad nacional de
san Juan, argentina.
Sergio Rivera is with the Universidad nacional de colombia, Bogotá.
Rodrigo Rodriguez is with the autoridad nacional de los
servicios públicos de panamá and the regional commission electric interconnection, panama city.
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