Brazil continues to have no prospect of importing electricity from Venezuela again, despite the Brazilian government announcing the resumption of operations last year in a bid to reduce costs for consumers.
The director general of the National Electricity System Operator (ONS), Luiz Carlos Ciocchi, told Reuters that entrepreneurs authorized to operate in imports had not yet carried out a crucial 96-hour uninterrupted test on the transmission line between Brazil and Venezuela.
This is a prerequisite to guarantee the restoration of the connection with the neighboring country, interrupted in 2019 after a worsening of bilateral relations between the two countries.
“They have to do a 96-hour continuous test and they haven’t been able to do this test yet. We have already submitted this condition to the entrepreneur. The deadlines for these tests have already expired a few times”, Ciocchi specified.
The operation would be carried out by the energy trading company Âmbar, belonging to the J&F group, which negotiated directly with Venezuela for the purchase of energy from the Guri hydroelectric plant.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy announced in December last year that Brazil would resume purchasing energy from Venezuela after more than four years of interruption, in a measure aimed at reducing service costs to the state of Roraima, which does not receives energy. national electricity grid.
Roraima consumers depend on local thermoelectric generation, with fuel subsidized by the Fuel Consumption Account (CCC) – the main charge placed on the electricity bill of all consumers in the country. In 2023 alone, the CCC’s budget reached 12 billion reais.
According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, importing energy from Venezuela would help reduce the total costs of the Roraima service, since the values practiced in the marketing contract between Âmbar and Venezuela were lower than those of the thermoelectric power plants currently responsible of energy supply. . .
The proposal presented by Âmbar to import energy from Venezuela’s Guri hydroelectric power plant was approved last year by the Electricity Sector Monitoring Committee (CMSE), but was only valid until January this year.
According to a source close to Âmbar, the company has not yet decided whether it will work on a new proposal. This will depend on the execution of technical tests, which are the responsibility of the Venezuelan side, and will depend on the market conditions at that time, the source said.
When contacted, Âmbar said she would not comment. The Ministry of Mines and Energy said it “remains mobilized to receive clean and renewable energy from Venezuela.”
“The Ministry understands that it is essential to have a lower cost than practiced in the isolated Roraima system, which still relies on fossil fuel generation,” he said in a statement.
Integration between the countries is considered important from the perspective of the electricity sector, the ONS director general said, as it strengthens the security of energy supply while Roraima is not integrated into the National Interconnected System (SIN).
“Having the plant and a reliable line is great because Venezuela has great hydroelectric potential,” Ciocchi said.
Source: Terra
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