Brazilian Electricity Research Articles

Recognizing the wealth of non-marketable food in distribution centres: The environmental benefits of donation

About one-third of annual global food production for human consumption is wasted, increasing the pressure on the environment in providing resources to support food supply-chains. Food waste reduction is of fundamental importance towards a more sustainable world, as recognized by the United Nations in the twelfth of its seventeen sustainable development goals for 2030. Among other practices, food donation appears as an alternative to overcome the existing social and environmental issues related to food waste, however, donation also causes environmental pressure by requiring additional energy investment on infrastructure and operational goods, while releasing gases to atmosphere, due to its processes. This work applies the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to evaluate the environmental impacts of plausible food donation scenarios in the ‘CEAGESP’ food distribution center in São Paulo city, Brazil, the third largest in the world regarding marketable food (about 3 million tons/yr). Under the concept of waste hierarchy management options, six scenarios for the CEAGESP's non-marketable food (37,652 tons/yr) were established, from landfilling as a baseline to a donation alternative. Results show that donation scenarios have the least environmental burdens for all nine LCA impact categories. Worst-case scenarios were obtained by landfilling the non-marketable food, considering electricity generation or otherwise. Differences over tenfold in comparative bases among the best and worst-case scenarios were obtained by fossil depletion, global warming, human toxicity, water and metal depletion LCA's impact categories. Results highlight the environmental advantages of donating the non-marketable food of distribution centres, which is aligned with the concepts of circular and regenerative economy towards a sustainable development that should be promoted by public policies. Regional variables as the Brazilian electricity grid based on hydropower plants have considerable influence in some LCA impact categories, especially when accounting for the avoided emissions, emphasizing the importance of carrying out this study for Brazilian conditions.

Resilience of the electric sector after COVID-19 and the impacts on the photovoltaic solar energy market

INTRODUCTION. The Brazilian electricity sector and parts of society are experiencing the impacts of COVID-19, which spreads throughout the world, paralyzing all or part of its activities. The reduction in electricity consumption leads to an analysis of the stability of the Brazilian energy matrix that serves different social segments. OBJECTIVE. The objective of this work was to carry out an analysis of the electric power generation sector and its standardization, the perspectives of its post-Covid-19 behaviour and the role of renewable energy sources, in particular the photovoltaic industry. METHOD. An analysis was made of the electric power generation sector and its standardization, the prospects for its post-Covid-19 behaviour and the role of the solar photovoltaic systems. RESULTS. Scenarios evaluated: updating of the regulatory framework for the Brazilian electric sector, the solar energy market photovoltaic, electricity consumption and the solar photovoltaic systems as a complementary source in this climate change scenario. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. It is concluded that sustainable transitions on the planet, associated with economic growth, promote human development for a low carbon community.

Economic feasibility study of ocean wave electricity generation in Brazil

Capturing wave power from the ocean is a renewable energy form which complements and diversifies energy grid sources. With its extensive coastline, Brazil has great potential for wave power generation. Economic viability is a key factor for energy generation projects, so the aim of this study is to conduct an economic assessment and Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) involved in implementation of wave energy converter devices to generate electricity in Brazil, given the various uncertainties associated with the parameters involved. To this end, the study was divided into two stages: an energy and economic analysis was carried out to implement wave energy converters in three regions of Brazil with two different converter devices; then, the levelized costs of electricity generation were calculated, given the multiple parameter variations involved, in order to observe the possible oscillations of these costs and the parameters responsible for the greatest impact. The results show that a high capacity factor has the best influence on LCOE values, making the ocean wave energy sales rate comparable with photovoltaic solar energy in Brazil. The study highlights the importance of investment in technology and development for ocean wave energy in order to see greater gains, thus making this type of project generation in Brazil greater possibility.

Price and income elasticities of residential electricity demand in Brazil and policy implications

The research objective was to estimate Brazil's residential electricity consumption behavior, given alterations in price and income. A balanced panel with monthly data was used for the 27 states of the country between 2004 and 2019, distributed into the five regions of Brazil. This approach enabled the calculation of price elasticity and income parameters, in the short and long terms, for both national and regional scenarios. They were used, as control variables, the average temperature, which was not used in previous research due to the use of a database with a higher level of aggregation, and the rainfall, that can be considered an important parameter in the Brazilian case where most of the electricity is obtained from hydroelectric generation, however, it has never been used in previous studies. The econometric model was estimated using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), version System - GMM (SY - GMM), to avoid dynamic bias of the panel and a serial correlation problem, which has not been considered in previous studies in Brazil. The results show that, although the short and long-term elasticities for the national scenario are similar to previous studies when analyzed regionally, the parameters proved to be quite different from previous research. Based on the results, adjustments were proposed for the Brazilian electricity price policy.

Framework to structure the Brazilian electricity futures market

Purpose This study aims to formulate a mechanism design in the derivatives market, summarizing a framework to set up the Brazilian electricity futures market. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study formulates a mechanism design in the derivatives market, summarizing a framework to set up the Brazilian electricity futures market. Findings The results show a positive economic outcome for the creation of the Brazilian futures electricity market. Originality/value The main feature in this work is to summarize a framework to set up the Brazilian electricity futures market applying mechanism design, applicable in other countries. The features of the mechanism are the space of expected results (Z), the strategies to survey the environmental space (θ) and the mechanism design – messages space (M).

Assessment of socioeconomic impacts, emissions and share potential of the sugar‐energy sector in the Brazilian electricity matrix, in the context of NDC, applying a bottom‐up approach and input–output modeling

AbstractThis work presents an assessment of sugar‐energy sector expansion in Brazil, focusing on the growth of the bioelectricity supply and considering two scenarios. The first scenario, called the BASE scenario, was based on the projection made by the Brazilian Energy Research Company (EPE) for the Brazilian commitments at the Paris agreement, presented during the COP 21 (Conference of the parties) conference and ratified in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), assuming that all the electricity from biomass could be produced by the sugarcane sector. The second is a scenario considering a higher share of the sugar‐energy sector in the Brazilian electricity matrix, called the BIO scenario. The investment needed for each scenario was evaluated, using a bottom‐up approach and assuming currently available technologies. The results showed that the BIO scenario could produce 55 TWh of surplus electricity more than the BASE scenario, boosting the share of the sugar‐energy sector in the electricity matrix, reaching a total of almost 130 TWh per year and requiring an additional investment that was 39% higher than in the BASE scenario. As the sugarcane surplus electricity could replace electricity from natural gas power plants, the BIO scenario could reduce emissions by 18.4 MtCO2eq in comparison with the BASE scenario. Through the input–output model used to evaluate the socioeconomic impacts, it was observed that the BIO scenario could add 919 000 job positions and cause a positive impact to the gross domestic product (GDP) of US$ 28.8 billion, which corresponds, in comparison with the BASE scenario, to adding 83 000 more job positions, and provides a 12.5% higher contribution to GDP. The total output was 8.6% higher in the BIO scenario in comparison with the BASE scenario. All of these analyses were carried out for three selected regions in the country: the traditional region, comprising São Paulo and Paraná states; the expansion region, including Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul states; and the rest of Brazil region. A spillover effect was observed over the total output in the Rest of Brazil region, showing that the impact of the investment over this region was proportionally higher in comparison to the investment done in other in other regions. The Rest of Brazil Region also presents a higher share of the indireect effects over the GDP, jobs created and total output. The final results of this research show the potential of the sugar‐energy sector to boost electricity generation, which can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and to preserving the share of renewable sources in the Brazilian electricity matrix and increasing energy security and generation closer to the biggest centers of consumption, mitigating challenges for electricity transmission between subsystems in the National Interconnected System (SIN). © 2021 Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Switch and defer option in renewable energy projects: Evidences from Brazil

The global electricity sector is responsible for a large share of greenhouse gas. Renewable energy (RE) is a feasible alternative to maintain sustainable growth and economic development, as it appears to be a means to reduce emissions and decarbonize economies. Renewable energy projects present some uncertainties and flexibilities that are ignored by traditional methods of evaluation, such as the net present value (NPV), which can lead to undervaluation. This paper aims to assess the switch-output option and defer option for RE projects according to their features in the Brazilian electricity market. The real options approach (ROA) for RE projects seeks to capture the value of uncertainties and flexibilities that all projects have from an investor's point of view. Then, when we adopted a more sophisticated approach that values flexibilities and uncertainties for RE projects, it was possible to conclude that there was a clear increase in value when compared to traditional investment analysis methods like the NPV.

Analysis of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the Brazilian distribution electricity market based on a socioeconomic regulatory model

This paper evaluates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Brazilian distribution electricity market by applying a socioeconomic regulatory model called Optimized Tariff Model. The model quantifies the impact of the pandemic on the consumer’s quality of life and also on the economic performance of power distribution companies. Results indicate that both consumers and power distribution companies have been significantly affected in Brazil, especially companies that did not have access to the public policy proposed by the government, as they exhibited economic losses of more than 1 (GR$) in total. After analyzing the impact of the new coronavirus and the actions of the government in this context, an alternative mitigation measure (public policy) is proposed based on the Optimized Tariff Model and its feasibility examined. The alternative mitigation measure is also compared to the public policy proposed by the government and proved to be advantageous in some respects such as making bank loans unnecessary.

Analysis of the strategies for the commercialization of electric energy of generating agents in the short term environment

The development of the electric energy market has gained visibility due to the recent transformations in energy policies in Brazil and worldwide. For many years, investments were not made in the Brazilian electricity sector, causing a delay in the energy matrix. With this, the government implemented measures for structural and institutional reforms in the electricity sector with the objective of guaranteeing the expansion of the generating park, attracting private investment, and promoting market competition. The restructuring of the electricity sector led to the emergence of new ways to negotiate energy, new structures and entities, with the objective of increasing transparency, competitiveness and efficiency among market agents. In the new model of the Brazilian Electricity Sector (SEB), energy trading is carried out through two contracting environments, the Regulated Contracting Environment (ACR) and the Free Contracting Environment (ACL). This research analyzes the electric energy commercialization strategies through generation agents acting and competing in the short-term energy market, through the use of competitiveness graphs.

What has driven the growth of Brazil´s residential electricity consumption during the last 19 years? An index decomposition analysis

Abstract Residential electricity consumption in Brazil has been growing during the last few decades, creating a potential opportunity to expand energy efficiency measures. However, the dimension of the sector and its closed relationship with the economic, cultural, and demographic processes causes a certain complexity in the understanding of patterns of consumption, creating additional challenges to energy policies. This study analyzed and decomposed the Brazilian residential electricity consumption between the years of 2000 and 2018, by driving factors through the LMDI-I method and IDA index, on regional level. All the data were obtained by official sources in the country. The main results obtained were: (i) the increase of household numbers was found to be one of the main drivers of consumption growth; (ii) household income showed no control over consumption in hot climate regions, except in low- income households; (iii) tariff showed to impose restrictions on consumption, also mainly in low-income households. Unprecedentedly, the results showed that the electricity consumption in Brazil varies with population age, with a trend of consumption growth up to the age 59, and a sharp reduction from the age of 60. The study presents opportunities to be contemplated in research and in energy policies.

Two-settlement system for the Brazilian electricity market

The Brazilian cost-based market employs the single-settlement system to clear electricity. Besides single, this system adopts a hybrid mechanism in which the amount of electricity measured during production and consumption in the real-time market is cleared with the electricity price set during the operation's schedule in the day-ahead market. The result is that the intersection between demand and supply does not set the electricity price neither in the day-ahead market nor in the real-time market. This work studies the flaws of the Brazilian settlement system. The study demonstrates that the two-settlement system is a better option for this market because it prices the electricity correctly at the moment of production and consumption, encourages the market participants to furnish accurate data for the system operation, mitigates anti-competitive practices, and induces market efficiency.

Pricing effects of the electricity market reform in Brazil

We examine electricity market reform in Brazil. From 1998 until 2004, the largely hydro-powered market featured a forward market in which bilateral contracts were negotiated. In March 2004, this was partially replaced by a centralised clearing of forward positions, with the objective of stabilising electricity prices. We develop a theoretical model for the Brazilian forward electricity market, showing how generator entry would be affected by the two regimes. We then model monthly prices using a two-state Markov Switching model, allowing offtakes to affect prices, volatility and transition probabilities. Consistent with our theory, we show that while the reforms decreased volatility in some regions and states, the market became both more likely to enter a high price state, and more likely to remain in that state for a protracted period.

Social Profit of Legal Metrology in the Brazilian Electricity Sector

In Brazil, despite of the undeniable importance of metrology in society, there is still no consensus as to the most effective way to “quantify” this statement. The aims of this study is to present a method to quantify the social impact caused by legal metrological control, focusing on voluntary verification and legal metrology expertise in electrical energy meter . In this sense, this article presents a model, developed exclusively for the public sector, with the objective of quantifying the return or economy in favor of society through National Legal Metrology System direct and indirect actions in the Brazilian electricity sector, considering the 2017 year. This model is an adaptation of Social Profit mode the “Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – Embrapa”. . Only laboratories under the control of the Legal Metrology Board, through their delegated bodies, which perform or supervise voluntary checks and metrological examinations performed by the technicians of the Brazilian Network of Legal Metrology and Quality – RBMLQ, were considered. Next step, performance indicators were proposed and validated to obtain social profit. The data show that Inmetro’s actions enable a return to society of US$ 32 million for each US$ 1 million of investment in this activity, pointing to the effectiveness of the model in quantifying the social profit of the agency. In a more detailed analysis it was possible to evaluate a potential revenue recovery for the states, throughTaxes, of the order of US$ 400 million, if the actions of expertise and verification are intensified, pointing to a promising horizon of revenue increase for the Brazilian government through the fight against fraud. Preliminary analyzes show both the massive presence and extreme remoteness of the state are not the best management models to be adopted for the electricity sector. The study suggests, at first, a direct correlation of Inmetro intervention and participation actions in partnership with the private sector in the electricity sector and revenue recovery with reduction in the increase of electric bills. Thus, we infer that the presence of the state as regulator in this case can be effective if adapted to reality. Further studies, however, need to be done. Social profit proved to be effective for use in actions to improve public governance, another point to be explored further on.

Determining the Reliability of Power Transformers Considering a Five States Markov Model

This paper presents a methodology to calculate power transformers reliability indicators using a five state Markov model, which contemplates the probabilities of failure, maintenance, overload, and shutdown. The objective of including more states that lead to the abnormal operation of the equipment than in other works aims to obtain a better estimate of the risk of failure, as well as direct more asserive maintenance actions. With these analyses, we will illustrate the impacts on the availability of transformer variations in failure rates. The methodology is verified through a case study using real data from 10 substations and 25 power transformers belonging to a Brazilian electricity company. The presented results demonstrate the impacts on the avaliability of power transformer variations in failure rates, showing that not considering all the possible causes of abnormal transformer operation may underestimate the Severity index.

Brazil electricity needs in 2030: Trends and challenges

The demand for electricity and the need to replace fossil fuels with renewables have been growing steadily, and this transition will have significant implications for our world that are only beginning to be understood. Brazil is one important example of a big economy where the electricity is already supplied by renewables, such as hydro, wind, and biomass-fired thermal power. In this work, we investigated the electricity load curves in the last 20 years in Brazil, and four different scenarios for 2030 are proposed to evaluate the impact of increasing renewables in the national grid, on an hourly basis. The analysis shows that growing electricity demand and the expected reduction in the hydropower share will significantly affect the reliability of the national grid, due to higher peak load and also due to the intermittency of Solar and Wind. Without any gigawatt-scale hydropower projected for the near future, increasing the share of these renewables should push hydropower to operate hundreds of hours every year above typical peak power levels experienced in the past. To avoid or reduce the threat related to this trend one of our scenarios suggests that solar water heaters could be massively deployed in Brazil, which would positively impact the system reliability by reducing the electricity demand mostly at peak loads during early evenings.

Interrelationship simulations among Brazilian electric matrix sources

Electricity in Brazil is mainly supplied by renewable sources. However, thermal sources are necessary to meet the demand in periods of climatic adversity. The research aimed to identify the existing relationships among Brazilian generating sources and to examine the effects of these relationships for each source, using a system of dynamic equation with VAR modeling and parameters estimated by SUR. The variable analyzed was electricity amount generated (GWh), divided by: biomass; coal; fuels; hydropower; natural gas; nuclear; and wind power. Monthly values ​​were collected at the National Electric Energy Agency website from January 2000 to June 2019. The dynamic equations parameters were estimated by SUR, which provided more functional equations and efficient predictions. The scenario simulations made it possible to verify hydropower generation and its dependence on thermal sources. The adjusted system exposed the reverse effects to this dependence, which suggest an increase in the use of non-conventional renewable sources, such as biomass and solar energy. As another alternative to reduce the matrix thermal dependency, the possibility of encouraging thermal generation from natural gas was identified, as it is a low carbon source, and the development of energy storage solutions, such as batteries, to maintain the electricity supply stability.

Greening inventories: Blockchain to improve the GHG Protocol Program in scope 2

The complexity of the supply chain, with a multiplicity of suppliers and organizations imposes challenges to its traceability, affecting the possibility of making it more sustainable. The declaration of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) by companies has been a response to pressures from stakeholders and regulations towards a sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). However, there are still some setbacks. The verification process of the inventories is a time-consuming task and the utilization of traditional renewable energy certificates can cause distortions in the perception of those who are consuming renewable energy but are not buying certificates. A blockchain-based application could address those problems by tracking transparent records of product history. Therefore, we propose a blockchain-based artifact in the form of a level 1 architecture diagram to improve the Brazil GHG Protocol Program inventory process on scope 2, which includes indirect carbon emissions from consumption of purchased electricity, heat or steam; main supply chain components. Using the Design Science Research (DSR) approach, we combine knowledge from business participants and environmental experts to understand the Program problems, propose and evaluate the artifact, and analyze its contributions. We find out that not all actors may want greater transparency in the supply chain and that traditional certificate issuers are expected to resist, while a new generation of blockchain-based certificates challenges the more traditional competitors. Additionally, the economic benefits observed in implementing blockchain points out that the organization and resistance of the actors, therefore, could be as important as costs in the implementation of new technologies in supply chains. There are two main contributions from this study. First, it introduces the discussion on blockchain adoption in the GHG Protocol Program. Second, it uses DSR as an instrument to both articulate a solution around a theoretical artifact and make its potential contribution understandable for actors not familiar with blockchain technologies. We propose that future studies could: (i) produce a proof-of-concept or a pilot implementation of this artifact; (ii) include other actors from the energy and trading certificates chain on the artifact, such as energy producers, regulators and the Brazilian Electricity Trading Chamber (CCEE); (iii) reproduce the same proposition focusing on GHG Protocol’s scope 3.

Implications of climate change impacts for the Brazilian electricity mix

Hydropower generation is responsible for supplying most of the electricity in Brazil. Like other renewable sources, water is highly sensitive to meteorological variables, so that climate change may have a considerable impact on it. Therefore, this study aims at assessing climate change impacts on hydropower generation and their consequences for the Brazilian electricity system. Scenario data for specific average global warming levels of 2°C and 4°C from Eta_HadGEM2-ES and Eta_MIROC5 downscaled climate models are used. Outcomes indicate that the electricity system’s adaptive capacity to lower hydropower generation includes a growing share of other renewable and natural gas fired thermoelectric generation, increasing the system’s marginal cost to meet projected demand in 2030. Greenhouse gas emissions are projected to increase in a 2°C scenario, but to decrease in scenarios in which warming reaches 4°C.

Determinants of the economic performance of Brazilian electricity distributors

This research aims to quantify the determinants of Brazilian Distribution System Operators (DSOs) economic performance. In this sense, seven cost and performance drivers of a DSO economic performance were defined. The contribution of each one to the actual DSO profit was measured by using Brazilian regulatory agency financial and operating data from 2009 to 2016. The analysis helps explain why Brazilian DSOs earnings have been, on average, lower than regulator-authorized earnings defined in the tariff review process over the last years, and the main determinant of it was the adverse effect on the market (2009 and 2014 to 2016), which was probably due to the economic crisis. Additionally, we have shown that part of the finance distress comes from electricity losses no recovery in tariff and we confirm that province-owned are prone to be less efficient than private utilities.

Analysis of Time Series Models for Brazilian Electricity Demand Forecasting

Analysis of Time Series Models for Brazilian Electricity Demand Forecasting