The forecast for delivery of the plant in Macaé was for 01/01/2023, but that was not what happened. Understand:

According to the contract signed between the Marlim Azul thermoelectric plant and the pre-salt plant, a new plant financed by BNDES (valued at R$ 2,5 billion) in Macaé (RJ) would start generating energy on the 1st of this year. However, the plans went down the drain, as the plant was not delivered on time, according to the Estadão website.

The planning to conclude the plant project started with the creation of a consortium of Mitsubishi Hitachi with Pátria Investimentos and Shell, with the start of works in July 2020. In addition to the partners, the Macaé plant, in Rio de Janeiro, was financed by the BNDES.

The Macaé plant has a generating capacity of 565 megawatts with just one turbine, enough to supply energy to just over 2 million homes. In addition, this plant was the only one to date that won an auction to explore the Brazilian pre-salt gas.

Delays in the works of the plant

Delays in the work on the new plant began to appear during the Covid-19 pandemic, which, according to Marlim Azul Energia, delayed the plant's implementation schedule by 206 days. Also according to the balance sheet, all lockdowns, city ​​closures, etc. hampered the launch of the new plant.

Thus, the long delay in starting operations at the new plant in Macaé (RJ) rescheduled its activities to start only on the 25th of July. Estadão sources say that, in May 2022, the company asked Aneel for an extra period for the delivery of the plant in RJ. The argument used by the company was that the pandemic delayed the delivery of the plant too much.

Analyzing the company's justification, Aneel concluded that the argument used does not match reality, since, for them, the delay has to do with internal issues of the company itself, which involve contracts and changes.

Justification for Marlim Azul Energia

Faced with Aneel's refusal, the company presented other arguments that justified the delay in delivering the Macaé plant, thus requesting a review of the process. The material is under analysis and results have not yet been released..

The way out for Marlim was to acquire a plant for power generation, thus trying to honor the commitments with energy distributors. At the moment, the plant is 96% complete and has 900 employees working.