The rural distribution grid is almost entirely medium voltage: 13.2 and 33 kV lines, and in many areas single-phase 7.62 kV lines with earth return. These are the ones that reach farms and most often cross them. High voltage —66 kV and above— is the transmission grid between substations.
What changes on the property
- Poles in the field. Crops are grown under a line, but machinery has to work around the poles and aerial spraying cannot be done as in a clear field.
- An easement, if it is high voltage. Law 19,552 creates the administrative power-line easement: no building within the strip and no trees that could reach the line, and the company has right of way to maintain it.
- Access to power. How far away the medium-voltage line runs is the first question before thinking about irrigation, a pump or a house: bringing it from far away is a works project paid for by whoever requests it.
The width of the easement
There is no national width. It is set by each line's resolution, according to voltage, tower type and number of circuits: ENRE set 83 metres for a 500 kV line in Chubut and 18 metres for a 2 × 132 kV line. The strip affecting a property appears in the title deed and the title report.
The routes are those each utility declared to the Energy Secretariat. Where the utility has not published its grid —EPEC, in Córdoba— there is no medium voltage loaded, and the map showing no line does not prove the property has none.