How a Power Utility in Brazil is providing electricity to 380.000 poor customers with minimum environmental impact

Abstract

Bahia State is one of the least electrified in Brazil. The great challenge is to provide electricity to 380.000 rural customers not yet served, with a minimum environmental impact. This paper will show how the company achieved this goal through the implementation of Cleaner Production. After identifying all the environmental impacts due to the project and construction of electric distribution circuits and all the legal requirements of the federal, state and local environmental legislation, the appropriate solutions were implemented: 1) environmental training of employees and contractors directly or indirectly related to the program, as well as to some special communities such as indigenous, African descendants, island inhabitants; 2) choice of the best path, avoiding native vegetation, rivers and special areas under protection; 3) reduction of the right-of-way width from 15 m to 4 m whenever possible, together with the use of selective cut of trees alongside the circuit path; 4) use of insulated cables in secondary circuits (220 V), among others. After three years of implementation the program have important results to show: less than 10% of the new projects (over 1.000 new projects in the 2002-2005 period) need an environmental license. The remaining 90% are constructed without cutting native vegetation generating minimum environmental impact.