POWER February 2012 - 66

POWER IN BRAZIL
fered his company's insight on the future of the
smart grid in Brazil: " Today distribution companies
have many losses, and developing the smart
grid would greatly reduce those losses. ANEEL
is clearly positioned in favor of the development
of the smart grid, and we expect that in three
years' time there will be an exponential investment
growth aiming to develop the smart grid
in the country. Through our extensive offer of
transformers, substations, measuring devices,
and specialized software, we want to participate
in the future of the smart grid, and we are already
involved in pilot projects that have shown
to be successful. "
Contrasting with the panorama of the distribution
sector, the transmission business is still
largely controlled by public companies, both
federal (Eletrobras' companies Furnas, Eletrosul,
Chesf, and Eletronorte, representing 57% of
Brazilian transmission lines) and state (CEMIG
in Minas Gerais and COPEL in Paraná). Though
some private actors like Abengoa, Alstom, and
CTEEP have a stake in transmission activities
and are developing new lines, their part in the
business remains modest.
Unlike other national systems, where the
transmission system is segmented into independent
regional power grids, Brazil's electricity
runs through a huge interconnected network
formed by more than 40,000 miles of transmission
lines. Originally, the Brazilian electricity
system was structured in an integrated fashion
through regional coordinating groups. But in
1998, the government, headed by Fernando Henrique
Cardoso, established the National Operating
System (ONS), a federal body responsible
for operation of the National Interconnected
System, commonly known as " SIN. " This newly
created institution prompted development of
new transmission lines connecting the different
Brazilian regions, leading to today's interconnected
national grid.
In a country with predominantly hydropower,
the national interconnectivity of the
transmission system performs an essential
role: It counters the effects of seasonal
droughts on hydro capacities by enabling
power to be transmitted from areas where
water is abundant toward areas where generation
capacities have been reduced. Indeed,
the rationing imposed during 2001 and 2002
could have been prevented if there had been
at the time sufficient transmission capacity.
However, interconnectivity has a disadvantage:
The downing of a single transmission
line can create a cascading effect on the
transmission system, threatening to collapse
vast segments of the SIN. The November
2009 blackout is a clear example of this vulnerability.
The knockout of two transmission
lines by a storm in São Paulo induced a domino
effect that crippled roughly 15 transmission
lines, provoking automatic shutdown of
the Itaipú dam and a blackout that cut off 17
GW of power affecting 10 Brazilian states.
(See " Brazil: Latin America's Beacon " in the
January 2010 issue of POWER.)
The dominance of hydropower means that
the distance between generation facilities and
end-user markets can be vast. As a consequence,
power losses in the transmission system are
high, amounting to an average of 16% of generated
power. Investments in grid efficiency are
needed to reduce such energy losses. Despite
this need, César Augusto Ramirez, president of
ISA-CTEEP, pointed out that, in the next years,
the most pressing investments will be devoted
to extending the power grid: " On average in the
next decade Brazil will need to auction around
3,500 km to 4,000 km of transmission lines per
year, representing a 30% total increase. "
CTEEP, which is one of the main private
transmission companies in Brazil, was acquired
by Colombian ISA in 2006. Today, ISA-CTEEP
owns and operates 12,300 km of transmission
lines and plans to soon inaugurate the 2,350-km
Araquara line, which will be one of the longest
66
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POWER February 2012

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