Now that I've been living here for a year and a half, the electric utility finally got around to installing an electric meter. My bill for the first 31 days, from 2019-10-28 to 2019-11-28, is 68 kWh, and it works out to AR$497.98. Most of this, AR$278.94, is the installation of the meter, although supposedly we'd already paid AR$2000 for that; the remainder is divided into a "fixed charge", AR$21.37, and a "variable charge", AR$90.62. This adds up to AR$390.93, to which are added a "municipal contribution" of 6.383% or AR$24.95 and the value-added tax of 21% or AR$82.10, for the total of AR$497.98.
However, they explain they're actually only charging 15 of the 31 days, perhaps because that's when they installed the meter. The "fixed charge" is AR$43.46 per 31 days (presumably this has to do with maintaining the electrical connection?) while the "variable charge" is given as a "unit price" of 2.832, which is multiplied by 32 kWh (apparently 68 multiplied by 15/31 and rounded down, although this calculation makes no sense) to get AR$90.62.
So, in effect, I'm being charged AR$2.832 per kilowatt hour, plus 27.383% of taxes, for a total of AR$3.60748656 per kilowatt hour. At the AR$64.50 per US$ rate that was current last weekend when I checked the prices in Likely-feasible non-flux-deposition powder-bed 3-D printing processes, this rounds to US$0.056/kWh, rounding. In diagonally printed letters that make it difficult to read several of the numbers, the bill helpfully explains, "CONSUMO CON SUBSIDIO DEL ESTADIO NACIONAL", consumption subsidized by the national government, even though I'm being charged AR$82.10 of VAT on it.
The new president has just announced a 180-day freeze in electricity and gas prices, which presumably means that this already relatively low energy cost will drop by another 15% or so as our currency inflates --- though whether the drop is 10% or 40% is really anybody's guess at this point.
68 kWh in 15 days is 190 watts, which is a surprisingly low consumption level given how much of the time I've had the air conditioner running, as well as cooking on an electric stove. Presumably this would be doubled if I had a refrigerator. The apartment is wired for 66 amps at 240 V, of which 20 goes to the stove. 66 amps would be 15.8 kW, which would be US$21.24 per day or US$646 per month at this price. Such great consumption might, however, change the category of service and cause variability in the fixed charge.
This at last tells me the cost of the energy to run the air conditioner. If I can trust the label, it sucks 4.5 amps and delivers 2700 kcal/hour (= 3100 W) of cooling. 4.5 amps at 240 V is 1080 W, so that's AR$3.90 per hour or, at the moment, US$0.06 per hour. In all likelihood, the depreciation on the air conditioner is greater than that; various similar portable air conditioners cost AR$25000, which is about 6000 hours of operation.