Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant Celebrates 35 Years and Focuses on Modernization

Project That Marked An Era in Brazilian Engineering Celebrates 35 Years with a Focus on Modernization for Greater Efficiency in Energy Generation

The Itaipu hydroelectric plant celebrates on Sunday, May 5, thirty-five years since the commissioning of its first generator.
The date marks the entry of the largest hydroelectric plant in the world by size, at the time, and the largest in terms of energy generation volume, making its mark in the history of Brazilian and Paraguayan engineering.

When it started operations 35 years ago, the plant supplied only the Paraguayan market, and it wasn’t until March 1985, with the installation of transmission lines, that the plant’s energy reached Brazil.
The Itaipu hydroelectric plant was officially inaugurated only 5 months after the first turbine began operation, by Presidents João Figueiredo of Brazil and Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay.

The Largest in the World

Itaipu has an installed capacity of 14,000 MW, and even after the commissioning of the Chinese plant Three Gorges in 2012, with an installed capacity of 22,400 megawatts, the plant did not lose its position.

The Brazilian-Paraguayan hydroelectric plant holds the title of the world’s largest producer, having broken the annual record in 2016, producing 103.1 million MWh, compared to 101 million MWh from the Chinese plant in 2018.

If we were to sum up all the energy produced by Itaipu, we would reach a figure of 2.63 billion MWh, enough energy to meet the entire planet’s clean electricity demand for 42 days, renewably and at a lower cost compared to available sources.
At its peak market participation in Brazil, the plant served 26% of the country’s demand, and even with increasing consumption, in 2018 it was still responsible for 15% of all energy consumed in Brazil and 90% in Paraguay.

The modernization aimed by the company in the coming years comes from technological updates of the plant aimed at the necessary sustainability for Itaipu to continue producing at levels similar to today.

To illustrate the importance of Itaipu in the Brazilian energy matrix, the plant alone produced 28.7 million megawatt-hours (MWh) in 2019, which is more than double the production of the Angra 2 plant (10.7 million) and significantly higher than the annual generation of Belo Monte (18.3 million MWh) and Santo Antônio (17.4 million MWh).
The largest fully Brazilian plant is Tucuruí, which had an annual production of 31.2 MW in 2018.

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