2023-09-27 22:25:44
© Reuters. Electricity transmission towers in Pará 03/30/2010 REUTERS/Paulo Santos
By Rodrigo Viga Gaier
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The National Electric System Operator (ONS) will increase this week by 2 thousand megawatts (MW) the exchange of electrical energy generated in the Northeast to the Southeast, which was heavily reduced for safety reasons after the blackout of 15 August, but normalization should only occur in mid-2024, the organization’s general director, Luiz Carlos Ciocchi, told Reuters.
To compensate for this “loss” of generation coming from the Northeast, especially from wind and solar sources, the operator has dispatched more hydroelectric and thermal plants at peak times and when there is a peak in energy demand, he added.
The ONS adopted a more conservative stance in operating the electrical system after the blackout on August 15th that affected practically the entire country and whose causes were only fully diagnosed more than a month later.
Energy shipments from the Northeast to consumption centers in the Southeast and South were reduced from 10,000 MW to around 5,000 MW, a situation that has displeased wind and solar generators, which say they have suffered financial losses due to the limitation of production at their plants.
The full return of the Northeast-Southeast exchange will only occur in July 2024, after the implementation of more than 500 measures aimed at preventing new technical failures like those that caused last month’s blackout.
In the draft of the Disruption Analysis Report (RAP) published earlier this week, the ONS pointed out the need for “hundreds” of measures to be taken by sector agents, in order to prevent a blackout like this from recurring, and to accelerate the system response time in these occurrences.
“Today we must make some flexibility, but not go back to what it was before (the blackout). Let’s seek a balance,” said Ciocchi in an exclusive interview with Reuters.
The expectation is that, with a more detailed overview of the blackout, the Northeast-Southeast exchange will increase to at least 7 thousand MW.
“Once we have identified the cause… we run simulations to see how the system reacts to expand the supply of renewable energy to the Southeast and South. Returning to normal will only happen when everything is implemented by July 2024,” he added.
Ciocchi stressed that, if these measures are adopted before the middle of next year, the ONS may reevaluate energy exchange for the Southeast region.
The director general of the ONS stated that he has been approached by electricity grid operators from other countries to tell about the unprecedented experience of the blackout recorded in Brazil in August.
He also revealed that he has been talking to associations in the electricity sector after the release of the draft RAP and that there were no questions or complaints about the more than 500 measures to be implemented by agents by next year.
In Ciocchi’s assessment, the obligations will not have an impact on equipment producers, sector agents or consumers and, if any, it will be small and in the decimal place.
(By Rodrigo Viga Gaier)
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