Important news was made public today in Argentina regarding electricity generation from renewable sources.
 
(1) The Official Gazette published the following resolutions of the Ministry of Energy and Mining:

Resolution No. 71/2016 (“Resolution 71”). This Resolution sets forth the initiation of the Procedure for the Open Call to supply in the Wholesale Electricity Market (“MEM”, for its acronym in Spanish language) electricity from renewable generation sources denominated the “RenovAr Program (Round 1)” (“RenovAr”) in order to comply with the renewable energy contribution targets established for December 31st, 2017 by Law No. 27,191 (the “Open Call”). With the purpose of implementing the Open Call, Resolution 71 promotes a public consultation of a preliminary draft of the Bidding Terms and Conditions (the “Preliminary Bidding Terms”), a draft of Renewable Power Purchase Agreement (“Renewable PPA”), and other related documents to be published by the Administrator of the Wholesale Electricity Market (“CAMMESA”, pursuant to its acronym in Spanish language) in the following 5 days. During the public consultation period, all those interested in making observations and contributions to the documents published by CAMMESA may freely do so. The Under Secretariat of Renewable Energy shall receive such contributions and subsequently publish the definitive bidding terms. Additionally, Resolution 71 sets forth that, as a result of the Open Call, bidders with awarded offers shall execute Renewable PPA.

Resolution No. 72/2016 (“Resolution 72”). esolution 72 sets forth the procedure in order to obtain the Certificate of Participation in the context of the Renewable Energy Promotion Regime and the procedure to be implemented for the Monitoring of Investments and the Application of Tax Benefits (“Monitoring of Investments and the Application of Tax Benefits”). To receive a Certificate of Participation, Resolution 72 provides for the specific applicable requirements which shall be taken into account on Annex I. Additionally, Annex II determines stipulations of the procedure applicable to the Monitoring of Investments and the Application of Tax Benefits.
 
(2) CAMMESA’s website (www.cammesa.com.ar) published today the following preliminary documents:

Preliminary Bidding Terms. The document includes the terms and conditions for qualification and future award of the bids received in order to execute a Renewable PPA with CAMMESA. Annex 1 of the document displays a preliminary schedule of the Open Call foreseeing the publication of the definitive bidding terms for July 1st and the award of the bids for September 28th, 2016.

Renewable PPA Draft. Among other provisions, with the purpose of attracting investors and reducing financing costs, the document provides for mechanisms to assure the payment of the Renewable PPA through the Trust Fund for the Development of Renewable Energy (FODER, according to its acronym in Spanish language), the granting of payment priority, and mechanisms to facilitate executive collection procedure.

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