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Petrobras thermoelectric plant in Mato Grosso do Sul is shut down due to risk of “catastrophic failure”

Written by Roberta Souza
Published 29/09/2021 às 12:28
Thermoelectric plant – Petrobras
Três Lagoas Thermoelectric Plant/ Source: News Portal Hojemais

Petrobras expressed the need to stop the thermoelectric plant for maintenance, however the ONS would have pressured it to keep it running

Last Saturday (25/09), in information released by the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, Petrobras shut down the thermoelectric plant in Três Lagoas, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, due to the risk of catastrophic failure in the structure of the unit. Petrobras expressed the need to paralyze the plant to carry out important maintenance, however the National System Operator (ONS), would have pressured the state-owned company to maintain the operation of the thermoelectric plant. Also read this news: Located in Porto do Açu, works on the GNA II thermoelectric plant will start in October

The disagreement between Petrobras and the ONS over the operation of the thermoelectric plant

The National System Operator (ONS) pressured Petrobras to keep a thermoelectric plant in need of maintenance on. Claiming that it needed to avoid a “catastrophic failure” in the structure of the unit, the state-owned company shut down the plant, as shown in communications that were exchanged between Petrobras, the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) and the ONS obtained by 'Estadão'.

On a daily basis, it is the ONS that determines what will be generated in each of the thermoelectric plants in operation in the country, as a way of distributing this generation among the different sources and guaranteeing the balance of this division. With the level of hydroelectric reservoirs very low due to the worst drought in the last 91 years, the agency has demanded that thermal generation plants — gas, diesel, biomass and coal — operate at maximum capacity to try to retain more water in the dams. These determinations, however, have tested the limits of the system.

The state-owned company communicated that there was a need for maintenance at the plant

On the first weekend of September, between the 3rd and 5th, Petrobras had communicated to the Operator that it would need to paralyze operations at its Três Lagoas thermoelectric plant, in Minas Gerais, a 386-megawatt plant installed in Mato Grosso do Sul. South, because important maintenance had to be carried out on the structure. The company was careful to schedule the service for the weekend, when electricity consumption in the country decreases, and presented the schedule two weeks in advance. As is customary in the sector, it was a scheduled shutdown, that is, a routine operation. It turns out that the ONS decided to reject the request.

Three days before the scheduled shutdown at the thermoelectric plant in Mato Grosso do Sul, on August 31, the Operator rejected Petrobras' request and, without giving any reason, declared that "due to the energy scenario, with high loads and high thermal dispatch", had to maintain the "maximum availability of generating units" and that the stoppage should only occur on holidays, between September 5th and 7th.

The next day, Petrobras still insisted with the regulatory body and asked that the original intervention schedule be maintained, because “there was no time to reschedule the activity and that this postponement of the date went against the recommendations of the specialists and the manufacturer ”. The ONS, however, again rejected the company's allegations and, through an email, maintained the order to postpone the shutdown, once again indicating the energy crisis scenario to postpone the intervention in the thermoelectric plant.

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Roberta Souza

Petroleum Engineer, postgraduate in Commissioning of Industrial Units, specialist in Industrial Corrosion. Get in touch to suggest an agenda, advertise job vacancies or advertise on our portal. We do not receive resumes

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