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The Federal Government has delayed contracts for its floating thermoelectric plants. The power plant ships that would support the electricity sector are expected to start operations only in August.
The contracting of four plant-ships by the Federal Government, an emergency measure taken at the end of last year to ensure Brazil's energy supply was guaranteed, became the newest financial bomb in the electricity sector. Delayed, the initiative of the floating thermoelectric plants it still hasn't turned on even a light bulb in the country, although it has a billionaire impact on the electricity bill.
Federal Government floating thermoelectric plants will cost R$ 3 billion per year
By contract, the power-ships should have started operations on May 1st. The deadline was an essential condition to justify an agreement closed in October last year, when Brazil had most of the hydroelectric reservoirs empty and under the threat of a shortage in the electric sector in this year.
Thus, the Federal Government contracted a simplified competitive procedure at a cost of R$ 3 billion per year. The plan was to publish an emergency public notice, without in-depth technical studies and which dispensed with basic environmental licensing processes. Therefore, the result is that everything was delayed and none of the floating thermoelectric plants was turned on until today and not even the structure was anchored in the chosen regions.
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The power plant project is unprecedented in the country, and the vessels of the Turkish company Karpowership work as large floating thermal power plants. They would be anchored in Sepetiba Bay, three kilometers away from the coast of Rio de Janeiro, and would be connected to a 15 km power transmission line, which would go out into the sea and reach a power substation on the coast. From there, the energy would be sent throughout the country, through the National Interconnected System.
Federal Government power plant ships can generate 560 MW
The most optimistic current deadline predicts that the floating thermoelectric plants will start generating energy for the electricity sector on August 1st, that is, three months after the originally required deadline, where the generation of thermal power plants was also justifiable, due to the so-called dry period, which runs from April to November.
In practice, about half of this period will have passed, not to mention that it has already rained a lot this year in most of Brazil, which has already caused the electricity sector to turn off the thermal power plants, which generate more expensive energy, also ending the use of extra tariffs included in the electricity bill.
It is important to note that the floating thermoelectric plants contracted by the Federal Government have already been built and are operating in other countries, and can generate up to 560 MW of power, which could supply around 2 million people.
Other late contracts
In addition to the floating thermoelectric plants, the thermal plants of the company Âmbar Energia, which belongs to the J&F group, are also behind schedule and are the target of pressure from the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), after Aneel decided to suspend the collection of fines for the delay in the operation of the power plants.
For consumers, what is left is an extra cost, estimated at more than seven times the average value contracted in other auctions.
To pay for all the energy contracted in last year's emergency auction, an annual payment of R$ 11,7 billion is expected for companies. Of this total, R$ 9 billion will be transferred per year to electricity bills.
