Brazil’s Furnas obtained the approval of the majority of debenture holders to contribute 1.58bn reais (US$330mn) to Madeira Energia (Mesa), avoiding the suspension of Eletrobras' privatization process, whose pricing is scheduled for Thursday.
The information was published by local news outlets.
Mesa is the controller of Santo Antônio Energia (Saesa) a special purpose company operating the 3,568MW Santo Antônio hydroelectric plant in Rondônia state.
A subsidiary of Eletrobras, Furnas holds a 43% stake in Saesa, which needs a capital increase to pay for a legal dispute it lost with the plant’s builders.
EDP has received the installation license from Acre state’s environmental agency (Imac) for the construction of the Tucumã substation and the sectioning of the 230kV Abunã-Rio Branco C2 transmission line.
The undertakings are part of lot 1 of a tender launched by electric power watchdog Aneel in 2021.
The project also includes the expansion of the Abunã and Rio Branco substations and the construction of the 230kV Abunã-Rio Branco C3 line, which are in the licensing process.
Construction starts in June, and EDP’s investment is 483mn reais.
Tucumã substation will have installed capacity of 300MVA, in addition to a 150MVA backup transformer.
EDP estimates an additional annual revenue of 38.6mn reais from the integration of the lot into the national grid.
The power plants for which Aneel greenlighted commercial operations in May add 602MW installed capacity, the highest monthly result in the year so far. The expansion through end-May was 2,162MW.
The growth in May included 387MW in thermoelectric plants, 144MW in wind plants, 40.7MW in PV solar plants, and 29.5 MW in small hydroelectric plants. There were increases in the states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pernambuco, Paraná, Rio Grande do Norte, Roraima, and São Paulo.
The generation expansion this year has occurred in 13 states in four regions. Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte account for 43.9% (950MW) of installed capacity. Total installed capacity was 183,129MW by end-May.
Neoenergia has developed an electric truck with an electric drive overhead basket to help with electricity distribution services.
The vehicle is the first in the country with a system that allows charging directly from the electric grid, providing more efficiency and autonomy by avoiding returning to operational bases for recharges.
The truck also has telemetry technology, which allows the monitoring of information about battery and routing activities performed by the integrated operations centers of the distributors.
In an automated way and in real time, it is possible to calculate the need for recharging and the available points along the route.
German solar module manufacturer AE Solar has reinforced its partnership with CorSolar, a company of the Melo Cordeiro group, with a 40MW distribution contract, which corresponds to about 80,000 solar panels.
Amid the growth of solar energy in Brazil, the partnership aims to guarantee the availability of products with 30 years of performance guarantee.
National grid operator ONS expects stability between June 4 and June 10 regarding storage capacity and inflows in relation to forecasts from the previous period.
By the end of June, the level of hydroelectric reservoirs in three subsystems should remain above 90%. The regional level projection for June 30 is 98.8% in the north, 91.2% in the northeast, 90.9% in the south and 65.3% in the southeast/center-west subsystem.
The total load forecast for June is 66,988MWa up 0.4% from the same period last year.
Natural gas consumption in Brazil, excluding the thermal generation market, grew by 6.9% on average in the first quarter, local piped gas distributors association Abegás said on Monday.
But demand from the industrial, automotive, commercial, residential, cogeneration, and other segments reached 42.1Mm3/d (million cubic meters per day) compared to 39.4Mm3/d a year earlier.
Including thermal generation, national demand totaled 60.2Mm3/d, down 14.3% in comparison with the accumulated average of 1Q21, when 70.7Mm3/d were consumed.
As the hydrological scenario improved, gas-fired thermoelectric plants served by the distributors had a lower volume dispatched by ONS, with a drop of 42.2%.
"The distribution sector always evaluates the non-thermal market as its main performance indicator. And the good news is that we registered a 6.1% growth in the industrial segment and saw the recovery of other segments affected by the restrictions resulting from the pandemic, such as automotive (19.2%) and commercial (14.3%)," Abegás executive president Augusto Salomon said in a statement.
Organizations and associations that represent natural gas producers, transporters and consumers published a manifesto reaffirming their support for the classification of the Subida da Serra gas pipeline as a transport pipeline.
In the statement, the entities claim that an eventual classification as distribution pipeline would create a vertical monopoly, “contrary to the competitiveness agenda that everyone longs for.”
The document was signed by Abal (aluminum producers association), Abpip (independent oil producers), Abividro (glass producers), Abrace (industrial energy consumers), Anace (energy consumers) and ATGás (gas transporters).
BNamericas recently published a report on the pipeline matter.
Petrobras has launched the teaser for the sale of its 18.8% stake in thermoelectric company UEG Araucária (UEGA), in Paraná state.
UEGA is a partnership between Copel Group and Petrobras, consisting of a combined cycle generation plant with two gas turbines and one steam turbine, close to the Bolivia-Brazil Gasbol pipeline.
It started operations in 2002 and has total installed capacity of 484MW.
The teaser, which contains the main information and the eligibility criteria for the selection of potential participants, is available on Petrobras' website.
Petrobras has completed the country's first test production of aviation kerosene with renewable content (BioQAV), which is part of the company’s sustainable fuels plan.
The test took place at Presidente Getúlio Vargas refinery (Repar) in Paraná state.
BioQAV emits less CO2 than mineral kerosene derived from petroleum because the former contains compounds generated by vegetable oil hydrogenation , a chemical reaction with the addition of hydrogen.
"BioQAV will play a relevant role in reducing CO2 emissions in the aviation sector. And Petrobras has all the skills and conditions to lead the movement of research, development and future production of BioQAV in Brazil," refining and natural gas director Rodrigo Costa said in a statement.
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The bill will now go to the senate for approval.
Over 5,000km of lines will be offered, along with substation capacity, demanding more than US$3bn in investments.
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