Brazil’s energy planning authority EPE, the National Grid Operator (ONS), and Germany’s International Cooperation Agency (GIZ) have contracted an international consortium to outline new guidelines for the integration of renewables in Brazil’s grid.
The study will be developed by a group made up of German engineering consultants Lahmeyer International, Brazilian electric sector consulting firm and European utility Engie Tractebel, who won an international bidding process.
The study, as Recharge reported in the last printed issue, will focus on wind and solar technologies and the combination of the two, said EPE in a statement.
“The idea is not to limit renewables, it is to understand what are the characteristics of a new energy system,” says EPE president Luiz Barroso.
“Our electric system is becoming very similar to that of other countries, but we have storage in our hydroelectric dams,” he says.
Barroso pointed out that new transmission lines contracted in recent tenders will solve the main hurdle to renewable energy expansion which is the transmission grid in coming years. But he stressed that the planning of new lines now needs to take into account wind and solar.
“If we don’t have the grid we’ll need to curtail wind and solar power, which is a waste,” he says.
The study will be jointly funded by the Brazilian and German governments based on several diplomatic agreements that the two countries have signed for the development of renewables since 2008.
For past decade Brazil has been facing uncertainty in rainfall regimes which, combined with economic growth, has depleted country’s reservoirs, reducing hydroelectric generation capacity and increasing reliance on thermoelectric power plants, which have topped 20% of supply.
At the same time wind power and other variable renewables have grown, with wind reaching 8% of total capacity from almost nothing a 10 years ago.
Brazil’s current 10 year energy expansion plan, known as PDE 2026, sees wind power doubling from current 12GW, solar surging sevenfold from 1GW today
The study will identify take into account “planning for the expansion of system and operation of the grid in an integrated fashion”, EPE said in a statement.
Using computer simulations and “quantitative analysis” the study is expected to result in proposal for changes in regulation, operation and planning, based on which are the most important cost-benefit technology mix for generation, transmission and storage.
Barroso, however, made it clear that Brazil will continue to build new hydroelectric dams, but their insertion will be based on more detailed economic and environmental feasibility studies.
According to the PDE 2026, large hydroelectric generation should rise to 103GW from current 95GW while thermal generation should reach 23.2Gw from 21,5GW today.
Brazil’s total installed capacity is projected to rise to 212GW in 2026 from 158GW today.