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The Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, said that the Government must hold a capacity reserve auction in 2024 and that a public consultation will be opened by the end of the year to discuss the inclusion of batteries. The minister also said that the Government does not need to give in to pressure and defended the role of thermal power plants for the electrical system.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy will soon open a public consultation on an auction for capacity reserves intended exclusively for the contracting of battery storage, to be held in 2025. According to the minister of the portfolio, Alexandre Silveira, in addition to this auction, the Government also intends to hold the competition that was already planned to contract reserve capacity from thermal and hydroelectric sources, still in 2024.
“We will release the public consultation [on the battery auction] in the coming days,” the minister said. “The objective of the battery auction is to boost battery technology in Brazil, to try to bring Huawei and other large battery producers, mainly from China and other countries, so that they can bring technology to Brazil.”
The minister said that in the medium term, batteries will be important to accommodate intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar, which will even result in a reduction in the cost of energy, but that the government does not want to rush or give in to pressure.
"If we dont have to rush and rush things and, consequently, tax the consumer, we wont do it," said Silveira. "The electricity sector is a large mosaic of interests, especially in generation. And there is usually a lot of pressure to do something faster because there is always someone who wins. But the government only has one objective: the cost of energy and energy security."
According to Silveira, the country has enough contracted energy to meet the countrys demand in the face of a historic drought. The minister highlighted the role of thermal power plants, which are being activated at a time of low availability of hydroelectric generation. "We have enough contracted energy, so there is no risk due to the lack of auctions. We want to hold energy auctions to guarantee energy security for the coming years and even plan for the next six or seven years," said Silveira.
«Planning already indicates the need to double the thermal park by 2031. Today we have 20 GW, unfortunately we will have to double the thermal park due to the effects of the climate. The temperature is rising, Brazil had never consumed an average of 105 gigawatts of energy in an afternoon before September this year. The average is 85 GW. We consumed 105 GW, which shows that we had all the air conditioners in Brazil on and the need for energy is increasingly fluctuating in Brazil», added the minister.
The minister also said he had requested a contingency plan to ensure the system would operate during the summer. |
