Paraná already has some hydroelectric power generation plants and, with these, the state will have 39 PCHs, according to Aneel
O Paraná should receive more than half of the number of Small Hydroelectric Power Plants (PCHs) existing in its territory in just 5 years, totaling 21 more energy projects to the group of 39 existing until the year 2027. Electric Energy (Aneel), which also show that nine undertakings, comprising 19 works, are now considered in progress. Another 12, involving 29 works, have not yet started.
The Small Hydroelectric Power Plants are like power plants with a generation capacity between 5 megawatts (MW) and 30 MW, a power greater than that produced by the Hydroelectric Generating Centers (CGHs), which develop up to 5 MW of energy. Together, the powers developed by these two types of hydroelectric plants in Paraná generate only 3% of the total amount in the state.
But, together, PCHs and CGHs represent 98% of all the power developed among the least expensive ways of obtaining energy in Paraná (532 MW), a region that also has wind and photovoltaic plants. Most of the production is still made by large hydroelectric and thermoelectric plants, almost 17 thousand MW.
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Construction of Small Hydroelectric Power Plants in Paraná
Of the hydroelectric plants being developed in Paraná, São Luís, whose owner is Tito Produtora de Energy Electric, features three works of 10 MW each, reaching 30 MW of power, with start-up forecast for May 2025, in the municipalities of Clevelândia and Honório Serpa.
Also, in second place, are the two hydroelectric plants of Confluência Energia S/A, in the region of Prudentópolis and Turvo. Together, they will generate more than 27 MW, with operations starting in July 2023. The nine hydroelectric constructions that are still in progress, and which involve 19 associated works, should add 117 MW of energy to the system.
From July of last year until this moment, seven new hydroelectric plants made up the system, four of which were released to operate this year. They are: Foz do Estrela, Dois Saltos, Taguá and Invernadinha.
In Paraná, there are currently 39 SHPs and 72 CGHs in operation, totaling 547 MW granted, a term that corresponds to the energy generation potential allowed by the environmental agency to the enterprise in the act of licensing.
Hydroelectric generation potential
According to the most current data from the Brazilian Association of Small Power Plants hydroelectric plants and CGHs (ABRAPCH), based on information from Aneel, Paraná would have the potential to build 162 PCHs and CGHs, with approximately 1,7 MW of untapped energy still in the state, which could mean R$ 12 billion in investments and 100 thousand direct jobs generated.
Paraná, according to the association, has been one of the states that is making the most progress in the environmental licensing of small power plants, with 191 documents issued by the Instituto Água e Terra, linked to the Secretary of State for Sustainable Development and Tourism, among Preliminary, Installation and Operation License for more than 60 developments.
Despite this energy generation agility, the president of ABRAPCH, Alessandra Torres, says that environmental licensing remains a major obstacle to the development of the electricity sector.
“Together with the culture of demonizing hydroelectric plants and their reservoirs”, declares the president, who cites as an essential differential, in relation to other sources of renewable energy, hydropower being a firm energy, which can and should complement the energies developed of wind and solar origin, which suffer from intermittency.