Bolsonaro government rules out resuming daylight saving time in 2022

The adoption of daylight saving time in 2022 is ruled out by the Ministry of Mines and Energy. The assessment in the folder is that there is not enough time for a study with the proper scope to calculate the savings that the measure would generate.

With more this year without advancing the clocks, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) ends his term without adopting daylight saving time once. The president abolished the measure through a decree in 2019, breaking a tradition that had been going on since 1985.

To justify the decision at the time, the government said that the economy had been falling and was considered practically null in the summer of 2017 to 2018 in a survey carried out by the ONS (National System Operator).

Now, to rule out the return of the measure, the ministry says that new methodologies are needed to correlate changes in consumer behavior with the change in the profile of energy generation sources in Brazil. The folder intends to carry out a new round of studies in 2023.

Studies carried out in the last ten years identified that the economy was no longer relevant. One of the factors was the increase in the use of air conditioning in homes and offices, which established a new concentration of energy demand in the middle of the afternoon.

The new standard cancels out gains from lengthening the day at the time of peak consumption, which occurs in the early evening, when people return home, turn on the lights and take an electric shower.

The entertainment sectors, however, never agreed with the end of daylight saving time, which increased circulation time and the volume of consumer spending.

“Daylight saving time never meant a big reduction in energy consumption, but it helped commerce, especially bars and restaurants”, says Ricardo Lima, energy sector consultant.

Lima explains that the difficulty in raising the economy is in adjusting the peaks in demand, as each distributor has a different maximum usage schedule. However, he understands that, in fact, it is necessary to make new analyzes, considering the impact that can have with the generation of solar energy.

At the time when he abolished daylight saving time, Bolsonaro also stated that he had considered the harmful effects of the measure on health, as artificially altering the hours affected the population’s biological clock, harming workers.

Studies on the impact of daylight saving time on health indicate that the back and forth of the clock impairs the sleep cycle, is accompanied by an increase in diagnoses of depression and a high, albeit modest, in the incidence of heart attack. Meanwhile, other reports indicate that the measure helps public safety by promoting a drop in crime.

Bolsonarista management discarded the measure even in 2021, when water scarcity threatened energy production, and several entities in the sector argued that any energy savings, however small, would be valid.

At the same time, in September last year, a survey by Datafolha found that 55% of Brazilians approved of a possible return to daylight saving time, against 38% who disagreed.

The first government to adopt daylight saving time was that of President Getúlio Vargas, in 1931. In 1985, however, a great drought made this alternative practically a rule, adopted by all governments.

In 2008, a decree by then-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) regulated the measure.

Clocks were advanced from midnight on the third Sunday of October, in part of the national territory. The change was in effect until midnight on the third Sunday in February of the following year.