Electric power and infrastructure for the basin
Electricity is not going to reach Vaca Muerta through a plan: of the 16 projects in the national high-voltage line plan, none supplies the basin —the only one that touches Neuquén ends at Piedra del Águila, more than 200 km from Añelo, and serves to carry Patagonian generation out— and the list the provincial utility presented in September 2026 does not touch it either. Meanwhile the fields make their own electricity by burning diesel on top of a gas field. That is the market, and it is not empty: YPF itself supplies Loma Campana with a 17 MW plant run by its own power company since 2017, and there are at least nine firms renting equipment in the basin. What we have not yet identified is a system that supplies several operators at once — which is exactly what the country's largest thermal generation manufacturer proposed out loud, and nobody executed.
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What the market is made of
The ~USD 210 M split into two blocks, and only one is the one you can take. Operation and maintenance of installed generation is mostly on equipment that already has an owner; new generation inside the field is the open block.
Transmission (Transener, 500 kV) and distribution (EPEN) are closed regulated monopolies; generation connected to the national grid is an oligopoly (Pampa, YPF Luz, AES, Genneia). Not addressable. estim
Addressable: generating power inside the field and selling it under contract, and powering electric fracturing fleets. There is equipment on offer and the operators generate for themselves; what we did not identify is a basin-scale operator. estim
Diesel costs several times what the gas the field has next door costs, and both series are published with a date: gas at the transport system entry point is auctioned by MEGSA and diesel is published by the Secretaría de Energía station by station estim. On that basis, whoever assembles supply for several operators at once takes a place that today has no owner thesis.
Why we do not put a number on it There is no public figure for how much generating capacity sits inside the basin's fields today. The only number that existed —28.1 MW in 2024— is the peak of one substation, not the field's generation nor the basin's, and the previous version of this sheet multiplied it by 27 to reach 750 MW with no source behind it. Without a capacity base and without a published price for the service, any slice would be a number invented to fill the line.
Who really pays?
The model is selling power under contract and not the equipment, and the door changes with what you sell. There are three, and they are not approached the same way:
According to Siemens Energy, producing areas today self-generate with diesel engines prob. Which operators are in that position is not something we found published unconf, and YPF itself supplies Loma Campana with a gas-fired plant run by its power company prob. Equipment rented against the contract lowers the capital friction thesis.
The first fleet was unloaded at Zárate on 8 September 2026 and three more are coming, all inside a five-year contract between the largest operator and a frac company — which makes it less likely the power will be tendered separately. That a frac company cuts a fleet's fuel cost from ~USD 33 million to ~6 a year by switching to gas says the company doing the fracturing is watching this arithmetic too.
⚠️ Outside the national grid. The national battery tender was awarded on 7 July 2026 —700.5 MW to five companies across seven regions— and none of those regions is Neuquén: they are Buenos Aires, the Northwest (NOA), two in the Northeast (NEA), two in the Litoral and one called Pampa, which the official note does not define. And it drew 8,338 MW of bids for 700 MW: in that channel there is surplus supply, not a shortage thesis.
Which projects move this demand
Development of ~70,000 bbl/d, ~380 wells, 35-year concession. 10% carry for GyP. The works include a Central Processing Facility (CPF)…
see the project →Development of the asset Pluspetrol bought from ExxonMobil. Peak of 100,000 bbl/d + 12 MMm3/d, +600 wells. Includes GyP's 10% carry.
see the project →The largest natural gas liquids project in Argentina's history: a fractionation plant for 2.7 million tonnes a year of propane…
see the project →The largest project submitted to the RIGI: USD 51,000 million over the whole life of the project…
see the project →When the window opens
Demand for in-field generation grows with every well that comes on production and every fracturing fleet that plugs in instead of burning diesel. On the other side there is no project that switches it off at a stroke: none of the 16 projects in the national high-voltage line plan supplies the basin, and the list the provincial utility presented on 10 September 2026 does not touch it either. Electricity arrives one area at a time and the operator pays for it: TotalEnergies laid 43 km of line to Aguada Pichana Este for USD 22 M and in May 2025 transferred it to the provincial utility. Each of those projects switches the business off in its own area and in no other. These four numbers publish themselves, with a date.
If a large operator, a generator or a transmission company builds the centralised generation and the network Siemens Energy proposes, the place is taken. thesis
Every high-voltage line an operator pays for and hands over to the provincial utility switches the business off in that area — and only that one. It already happened: TotalEnergies at Aguada Pichana Este, May 2025. No calendar announces it. thesis
The opportunity in depth
The opportunity in depth
Generate power inside the field —with the formation's own gas, and batteries where round-the-clock firm power is needed— and sell it under contract instead of selling the equipment, charging the gap between the diesel burned today and the gas next door.
Power the electric fracturing fleets, which draw tens of MW each. The first arrived in the country in September 2026 and three more are coming.
Round-the-clock firm power with batteries, for a basin that does not stop. ⚠️ Outside the national grid: the national battery tender was awarded in July 2026 and left not one megawatt in the basin.
When you get paid, and what blocks it
already in
split
Regulated; Edison-Genneia co-ownership + Mindlin group. Closed to new entrants.
Regulated.
Pampa 5,472 MW prob; YPF Luz ~10% of the country.
Buys gas at the wellhead, generates electricity and builds data centres without connecting to the grid. 14 sites in Texas prob; whether the more than 200 MW already operate or are the target of an agreement in Midland is something the two articles reporting it disagree on unconf. In August 2026 it announced USD 25 M for 20 MW off-grid in Vaca Muerta. ⚠️ It does not sell electricity to the operators: it brings its own demand.
See the remaining player
There is equipment on offer —nine generator-set companies in the sector directory, counted on 14-Sep-2026— and there is generation the operators run themselves. What we did not identify, in the universe we reviewed, is an operator supplying several of them at once. A global manufacturer proposes the equipment and does not operate it; the power for electric fracturing is decided inside the contract between the largest operator and a frac company.
The jobs it createsUses gas that is flared today (lower emissions), lowers the energy cost of the whole basin and creates electrical maintenance jobs. thesis
calculate it
The number is our own estimate. The calculation, step by step, is below.
The full calculation, step by step
Concentration High in transmission and distribution (regulated monopolies); medium-high in generation connected to the national grid. Inside the field, supply is split between rented equipment and each operator's own generation: we did not identify a basin-scale operator within the universe we reviewed.
The rule that moves it
What moves this line of business is not a reform that creates it, but the provincial investment regime —which makes installing generating equipment in the basin cheaper— together with the pressure to stop flaring the gas that comes up with the oil and sell it as electricity. The national high-voltage line plan does not enter the calculation: we opened its annex and none of its 16 projects supplies the basin.
See the underlying reading
The underlying policy that opens up this demand. It is the same inference declared by the rules and the program pillars pushing in this direction.
better export netbackNeighbouring markets5 markets in the same group, from USD 7 to USD 850 M a year
See the remaining 2 neighbouring markets
Metalworking, boilermaking and industrial maintenance~USD 400 M - 700 MMonitoring, reporting and verification (MRV/LDAR) of methane and GHG~USD 7M - 18MHow we validate this figure
The figure leaves out two things, both for the same reason: there is no one to bill them to. Fuel is billed separately and is nobody's revenue. And the national high-voltage line plan does not supply the basin: the official annex to Resolución 715/2025 was opened in the Official Gazette and its 16 projects were counted one by one — the only one that touches the province of Neuquén is an alternative ending at Piedra del Águila, on the Limay, more than 200 km from Añelo, and it serves to carry Patagonian generation towards the Comahue. With those two left out, the arithmetic gives ~210 M: about 180 of new in-field generation and about 30 of operation and maintenance estim.⚠️ What remains is smaller, and what supports it has to be stated. The in-field generation block rests on a single public measurement —peak demand at the Loma Campana substation, which went from 13.2 MW in 2022 to 28.1 MW in 2024 according to EPEN data published by the press prob press— and that figure is for one substation, not the basin: extending it to the whole basin is an assumption, not a datum. That is why the seal is an estimate, and why no dollar figure for an entry share is published: there is no public figure for how much power is generated today inside the fields.
Coverage: the «Generator sets — sale, repair and rental» category of the Guía Vaca Muerta, the sector's commercial directory, opened and counted in full: nine companies. The provincial register of certified suppliers is no use here, because it has no energy or generation category · Sep 14, 2026 · not reviewed: it is a private commercial directory that does not publish its admission criteria —it says who signed up, not who works— and no operator publishes who it holds a power contract with
How to cite this figure: Despegue (2026). Electric power and infrastructure for the basin · Neuquén. despegueargentina.com/en/neuquen/energia-generacion-boca-de-pozo-vaca-muerta · terms of use
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