Power distribution bottleneck

Once again a recurring problem in the capital’s summer. For many residents and businesses, power outages are common, disrupting their lives, causing economic losses and requiring alternative solutions. There is concern about the frequency of these events and whether the transportation and distribution systems are capable of handling what is being consumed.

According to the National Electrical System Operator (ONS), demand on the southern subsystem reached 20,966 MW of power on February 14, 2023, a record that has not yet been broken. At the height of the recent heat wave, on December 18, the achieved ratio approached 20,284 MW. At 2:04 p.m. On January 3 at 11:30 am, the capacity was 14,617 MW. The Office for National Statistics adds that all these values ​​are consistent with the expected normal situation.
For Alzeneira da Rosa Abayde, PhD in Electrical Engineering and Professor at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), talking about widespread power outages can be “unwise”, because they are not expected in the structure of power distribution. However, there are caveats. She points out, “It will be necessary to conduct an inspection of the networks to assess the quality of the structures, but I bet that the networks are old and worn out over time, and this is the reason for the frequent power outages.” In the teacher’s analysis, as long as the load or upload request is within the schedule, only an “external event” can cause such a situation. The last nationwide power outage occurred on August 15, 2023, affecting more than 940,000 customers in Rio Grande do Sul and another million consumers across Brazil.

At the end of December, the National Statistics Office presented an investment estimate of R$1.031 billion in 32 projects in Rio Grande do Sul between 2024 and 2028, which corresponds to the so-called Medium-Term Electric Operation Plan for the National Interconnected System (PAR/PEL). 2023). R$690 million will be used to strengthen the structure and another R$340 million will go towards its expansion. In the country, it is estimated at 49 billion Brazilian riyals. Five states account for 71% of the amounts invested: Maranhão, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Piauí and Bahia.

The document highlights that the increasing supply coming from centralized renewables, i.e. a few units that generate power for many consumers, or distributed sources, where several units supply the grid, represents a “challenge” to the system. There is nothing to worry about yet, because in the context of generation, for example, the country installed 291 plants in 2023 alone, 140 of them for wind power, and the national energy matrix has reached the 10 GW mark, exceeding the target at the beginning of the year.

In Republika Srpska, the total investments already made, both in contracts and those to come until 2030, amount to R$26 billion, according to the President of the Renewable Energy Industry Association of Republika Srpska (Sindienergia-RS), Guilherme Sarri, at the end of last year. “Not to mention the other projects under analysis,” he stressed. Another point is that the tariff flag of the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) has been green since April 2022. Therefore, there is no passing on of the generation cost to consumers.

If this point is relatively stable, the distribution is a “stone path.” “Distribution networks are not always adequately maintained, it is difficult to control them. The energy load increases, and do the networks have the capacity to respond?” asks Professor Alzenera. According to her, there are three main reasons for power outages in the summer of Rio Grande do Sul: Extreme weather events, increased demand for the use of equipment such as air conditioning, and transportation of goods to the coast, due to a temporary increase in population.

Two large distributors serve the Rio Grande do Sul region, RGE, with 381 municipalities and more than 3 million customers, and CEEE Equatorial, with 72 municipalities and 1.8 million customers. There are questions about the quality of work performed. Recently, for example, the CEEE Tropical Region was strongly criticized by the mayor of Porto Alegre, Sebastião Melo, because, according to him, it was directly responsible for the water crisis that left several areas of the city without water in December. In the RGE region, areas such as the municipality of Santa Rosa have been suffering for days from power outages due to the storm. Both companies have already received fines from the State Agency for the Regulation of Delegated Public Services of Republika Srpska (Agergs), which also stated that it had requested information about the actions planned by the companies on the coast during the summer.

When contacted, RGE highlighted that investments in its concession area exceeded R$3 billion in the last three years, replacing, for example, 220,000 wooden poles with concrete or fiberglass units and also 12 new substations, ensuring “the robustness of the system to support Or reduce the impact of climate phenomena,” which was “developed 100% to serve its customers.” CEEE Equatorial has not posted any position at the close of this report.

(Marks for translation) Special

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