Signup for Brazil's A-5 Energy Auction Shows 337 Projects Totaling 24,253 Megawatts

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Latin America (Cordoba, Argentina)--Brazil's Empresa de Pesquisa Energética (EPE) (Brasília, Brazil), a federal bureau that fosters research and development in both public and private energy sectors, issued a statement last week confirming that 337 projects were registered to participate in the A-5 Energy Auction. These projects will be tendered on December 20 and have a combined generating capacity of 24,253 megawatts (MW).

In the A-5 Auction, power purchasing contracts will be secured for energy coming from natural gas, biomass, wind, and hydro generation projects. Any contract with a distributor agreed upon at this event will have a validity of 30 years if it is a hydro project, or 20 years if it comes from other sources. Startup of the projects must be completed by 2016.

According to the information disclosed by EPE, at the end of the sign up process there are 34 natural gas-fired grassroot projects registered to participate in the event. These projects represent an installed capacity of 12,865 MW or 53.04% of the total megawatts that are intended to be auctioned. However, the greatest number of registrations comes from windfarms: There are 296 signed wind projects, representing 7,486 MW or 30.87%.

Thermo projects also account for 14 biomass-fueled registrations, or 856 MW (3.53%). These projects use sugarcane bagasse or wood residues as their main fuel. There are 33 registrations for hydro projects that are planned to be included in the event, representing 3,047 MW or 12.56% of the total signed-up megawatts. The figures for hydro registrations include 2,160 MW coming from grassroot projects, 584 MW for expansions of existing projects, and 303 MW pertaining to new small hydro projects, that is, projects with an overall capacity not exceeding 30 MW.

Hydro projects that are intended to sell its future power output at the A-5 event include five power plants on the Parnaiba River: Cachoeira (63 MW); Castelhano (64 MW); Estreito Parnaíba (56 MW); Ribeiro Gonçalves (113 MW); and Uruçuí (134 MW). Only Cachoeira and Estreito Parnaíba have environmental permits, as they were auctioned at last year's A-5 auction, but received no offers. EPE has acknowledged that is unlikely that Uruçuí will complete permitting in time for the auction. Other projects include São Manoel (700 MW), Sinop (400 MW), Cachoeira Caldeirão (219 MW), São Roque (135 MW) and Riacho Seco (276 MW).

Rio Grande do Sul is the state with most registrations, while Rio de Janeiro has more registered megawatts: 87 projects and 3,009 MW, respectively.

EPE will now begin the process of technical assessment in order to determine final eligibility of all projects to actually take part in the auction. Requirements include having a valid environmental permit, confirming the project has or will have a proper connection point to the grid, having a certificate of anemometric studies (only for wind projects), having a declaration of hydro availability (only for hydro projects), and having a guarantee of fuel supply (only for thermo projects). After approval, projects are ready to be presented at the auction.

For additional information, see related August 31, 2011, article - Brazil's Ministry of Energy Sets Date for Electric Power Auction.

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