Electricity sector in Brazil
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Electricity coverage (2006) | 97% (total), (LAC total average in 2005: 92%) |
| Installed capacity (2012) | 121,000MW |
| Share of fossil energy | 17% |
| Share of renewable energy | 82% (77% hydroelectric) |
| GHG emissions from electricity generation (2003) | 20 MtCO2 |
| Average electricity use (2007) | 2,166kWh per capita (USA: 12,300 kWh per capita) |
| Distribution losses (2005) | 14% |
| Residential consumption (% of total, 2006) |
34% |
| Industrial consumption (% of total, 2006) |
25% |
| Commercial consumption (% of total, 2006) |
22% |
| Public sector consumption (% of total, 2006) |
13% |
| Rural consumption (% of total, 2006) |
6% |
| Average residential tariff (US$/kW·h, 2007) |
0.153; (LAC average in 2005: 0.115) |
| Average industrial tariff (US$/kW·h, 2005) |
0.113; (LAC average in 2005: 0.107) |
| Average commercial tariff (US$/kW·h, June 2005) |
0.142 |
| Services | |
| Sector unbundling | Yes |
| Share of private sector in generation | 10% |
| Competitive supply to large users | Yes |
| Competitive supply to residential users | No |
| Institutions | |
| No. of service providers | 6 main (generation), 5 main (transmission), 49 (distribution) |
| Responsibility for regulation | ANEEL-Electricity Regulatory Agency |
| Responsibility for policy-setting | Ministry of Energy and Mines |
| Responsibility for the environment | Ministry of the Environment |
| Electricity sector law | Yes (2004) |
| Renewable energy law | No |
| CDM transactions related to the electricity sector | 91 registered CDM project; 9,034,000 tCO2e annual emissions reductions |
The electricity sector in Brazil is the largest in South America. Its installed capacity is comparable to that of Italy and the United Kingdom, although with a much larger transmission network. The country has the largest capacity for water storage in the world, being highly dependent on hydroelectricity generation capacity, which meets over 80% of its electricity demand. This dependence on hydropower makes Brazil vulnerable to power supply shortages in drought years, as was demonstrated by the 2001-2002 energy crisis.
The National Interconnected System (SIN) comprises the electricity companies in the South, South-East, Center-West, North-East and part of the North region. Only 3.4% of the country's electricity production is located outside the SIN, in small isolated systems located mainly in the Amazonian region.
Generation capacity in Brazil is dominated by hydroelectric plants, which account for 77% of total installed capacity, with 24 plants above 1,000 MW. About 88 percent of the electricity fed into the national grid is estimated to come from hydroelectric generation, with over 25% coming from a single hydropower plant, the massive 14 GW Itaipu dam facility, located between Brazil and Paraguay on the Paraná River. Natural gas generation is second in importance, representing about 10% of total capacity, close to the 12% goal for 2010 established in 1993 by the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
This reliance on abundant hydroelectric resources allegedly reduces the overall generation costs. However, this large dependence on hydropower makes the country especially vulnerable to supply shortages in low-rainfall years (See The 2001-2002 crisis below).
Brazil is still a net importer of electricity (mostly from Argentina), but import reliance is falling. In January 2007, the breakdown of generation by source was:
Source: Ministry of Energy and Mines, 2007
As summarized in the table above, Brazil has two nuclear power plants, Angra 1 (657 MW) and Angra 2 (1,350 MW), both of them owned by Eletronuclear, a subsidiary of the state-owned Eletrobrás.
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