Overview of the status of smart metering systems in Argentina and future perspectives

Smart grids have become a tangible reality in most of the developed countries. The implementation of a large number of pilot programs and a multi-million dollar investment by major European countries, North America and China has successfully transformed the electricity grid. However, the road that still remains to be travelled is very long and there are many years of investment and development ahead. In the case of developing countries, such as those in Latin America, the gap is even greater, although in recent years there has been a significant increase in investment in the area. This paper presents an overview of the situation in Argentina, focused mainly from the point of view of smart metering systems, which have become the basic pieces for the development of a real smart grid. Although there is currently no general implementation programme in the country, there is a slow but persistent progress through uncoordinated regional or local initiatives. This report presents a state of the art of the area, supported by data from the commercial sector, and discusses some of the possible scenarios in the short and medium term. In the analysis are considered issues like communication technologies adopted, urban and/or rural environment, etc., and the impact of smart metering devices in the daily operation of the grid.