Paraguay on the regional map
Cheap and close at the same time barely exists in the region: the locations with a lower tariff than Paraguay’s sit 145 ms away or more. The map above compares seven locations and, read through a PESTEL lens, each axis of the chart answers a different dimension. The economic one is the tariff: Quebec ($35) and Texas ($40) set the floor, with Paraguay close by: US$ 44.33/MWh for crypto and data centers under ANDE Res. 49238/2024, with contracts in force through the end of 2027, and an industrial range of 222 to 405 Gs/kWh by voltage level under Pliego 21, about US$ 36-66/MWh. The ecological one is the bubble: mixes almost entirely renewable in Paraguay, Quebec and Uruguay; mostly fossil in Argentina and Texas (IRENA). The technological one is latency and the fiber behind it: Brazil-South sits 5 ms from São Paulo, Paraguay at 30, Quebec at 145 (median, RIPE Atlas). The combination decides: Quebec and Texas charge less and sit far away; Paraguay brings a low tariff, 30 ms and a 99.7% renewable mix together at the same point. For the years after 2027 there is an auction proposal under debate, capped at 700 MW with a US$ 56 floor: the current window is the signal to decide with numbers. The political and legal dimension does not fit on an axis map, so it gets its own panel, read through the lens of whoever installs to consume power; criterion 3 brings the Paraguayan case down to detail. The five criteria below bring that picture down to a concrete site and load.
The five criteria, one by one
1 · Energy: the advantage and the hard question. The mix is hydroelectric and the cost competitive, but a data center depends on firm, continuous power, with backup; the legal framework already recognizes generation with storage. What to check:
- Transmission capacity at the exact site
- Backup scheme for your load
- Demand growth versus generation (ANDE)
2 · Connectivity: international fiber and real latency. An excellent energy contract does nothing for the client querying from São Paulo who notices the lag. What to check:
- International fiber routes and redundancy
- Real latency to São Paulo and Buenos Aires
- Internet traffic exchange points
3 · Legal and fiscal framework: what the structure saves. Structured well, it moves the outcome almost as much as energy does. What to check:
- Law 60/90 tax incentives
- Maquila regime for export services
- Tax treatment of constantly replaced equipment
4 · Climate and cooling: the extra cost is managed through design. The heat here is a given of the problem: the technology to handle it gets chosen once and paid for every month on the bill. What to check:
- Cooling technology: air, liquid, immersion
- Water and energy use on site
- Cooling overhead within total cost of operation
5 · Talent and operations: 24/7 for decades. The build gets inaugurated on a single day; the operation has to hold up every early morning. What to check:
- Critical infrastructure technicians in the country
- Maintenance agreements and real response times
- Training plan if the scale grows
From the variables to the decision
No single criterion decides on its own: the pre-feasibility study compares your site against your real alternatives and delivers four pieces:
- The energy contract that is possible
- Measured connectivity
- A structured legal regime
- Total cost of operation over ten years
The data: ANDE tariff schedule by voltage level, outage records per substation, measured latency to São Paulo and Buenos Aires, construction and connection costs per site, and your projected load curve.
The technique: mixed integer linear programming for siting and sizing, with an electrical reliability simulation that supplies the outage scenarios.
The decision: which site, what size and how many battery hours minimize the 10-year total cost while meeting the availability and latency your operation requires.
How to measure it: on-site measurement before you decide: power quality and continuity, real end-to-end latency, and total cost over 10 years, in a dashboard you can compare across sites.
The framework above is published to be argued with: the score weights are examples and allow a different reading. If you weigh firmness against tariff differently, or you have a compute project looking at Paraguay, write to us and we will go through it with your numbers.