Power transmissionlinesneed upgrade

In the last concession auction carried out in April,Aneel contracted investments of R$ 6.9 billion for enlargement and upgrade of lines

Brazilian power transmission network has an extension of 116.4 thousand km, length equivalent to more than two and a half turns on Earth’s circumference. It is one of the largest interconnected networks of the world. TheSistema Interligado Nacional (National Interconnected System) connects all regions of the country, excluding small isolated systems located in the Amazon or private systems that include only 1.7 percent of the total installed length.

This extension of the Brazilian system is justified by the continental dimensions of the country and by the peculiarities of evolution of the national power matrix, where the main plants and those of highest capacity are located at considerable distances of the consumption centers. Brazilian system is also connected to Venezuela (where the energy that supplies the capital of Roraima, Boa Vista comes from), to Argentina, to Uruguay and to Paraguay (where both countries are partners ofItaipuBinacional). These lines are operated byEletrobras.

From the total length of the national system, approximately 60,000 km of lines belong to the companies of Eletrobras system. This is the so-called basic network, formed by high-voltage systems (230,000 volts and above, including 47 percent of Brazilian lines of this type) and by the other transmission installations (networks operating between 69,000 and 138,000 volts).

In addition to its huge extension, other remarkable features of Brazilian power transmission network are its age and its technologic profile.Most lines have more than 20 years of operation but there are sections operating for more than 70 years.In the opinion of experts, most of these sections may be upgraded to attend better to the increase of demand which was followed by an increase in generation due to new hydroelectric power plants andto other alternative sources of generation.

The performance of a transmission line is focused in two points: operation and maintenance. Operation is monitored through indicators of availability and of interruption rate that define if the line is operating in an acceptable level, function of time of availability and number of shutdowns per 100 kilometers of line per year.In the point of view of maintenance, however, mean time between failures—characterized by equipment availability—and mean time of repair are the parameters considered.

Till 1999, Brazil had basically two independent subsystems: South-Southeast-Center-West and North-Northeast systems. This configuration was limiting the possibility of getting a more efficient management of climate (rainfall regime), of energetic differences in the several regions of the countryand of the transmission system which integrates medium and large-size generating plants.

Currently, both subsystems are connected. This allows a continuous and permanent exchange of energy among the regions and a more economic, flexible and safe operation of the installations that compose the Sistema Interligado Nacional.To make the national transmission system comply with performance and quality standards defined bytheAgência Nacional de EnergiaElétrica (Aneel – National Agency of Electric Energy), a program turned to the expansion of the system—through new concessions acquired in the auctions promoted by Aneel or through authorizations for improvement of the current system—is being carried out.

The last auction for new projects of power transmission was carried out in last April (Transmission Auction Nº 13/2015), when 14 of the 24 sections offered to the market were acquired. Total length was of 6500 km of power transmission lines.At that time, Aneel contracted investments of R$ 6.9 billion, reaching 61 percent of the auctioned total of R$ 11.3 billion. The 14 sections which received proposals were located in the states ofBahia, Ceará, Espirito Santo, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo and Tocantins.According to data ofAneel, the erection of these lines will generate approximately 17,000 direct jobs and will give more reliability to the system.