The Instituto Internacional Arayara filed a civil suit in the Federal Court in Brasília asking for the suspension of the auction of gas-fired thermal plants, scheduled for this Friday (30). The entity questions the financial and environmental costs of these plants.
The auction is part of a series that should install 8 GW (gigawatts) of projects powered by natural gas in Brazil. The requirement was included in the Eletrobras privatization bill through amendments that became known as “Eletrobras tortoises”.
The tortoises received strong opposition from the market and from public bodies in the energy sector. The general question is that the law does not follow the technical logic when determining the installation of projects where there are no pipelines to carry gas or networks to transmit energy to consumer centers. However, the construction of these thermal plants has become a requirement due to lobbying in Congress.
“The auction serves the interests of a few to the detriment of losses for many”, says the director of Arayara, Juliano Bueno Araújo.
These gas plants will act as a reserve capacity and will be on almost full time, emitting greenhouse gases and generating expenses for consumers, even when the hydroelectric reservoirs are full.
This Friday, there is a dispute between investors interested in the first wave of these projects, which add up to 2 GW (gigawatts), with 1 GW in the North region, 700 MW (megawatts) in Piauí and 300 MW in Maranhão.
Araújo points out that these plants have several problems that need to be reassessed by the regulatory body, Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency).
On the one hand, he says, they will raise the electricity bill at a time when energy costs in Brazil have become prohibitive for a large portion of the population. According to a survey by the entity, about 1.5 million Brazilians had their energy cut off due to lack of payment and are in the dark. Another 9 million are in arrears.
The civil action includes a cost simulation, coordinated by professor Dorel Soares Ramos, from USP (University of São Paulo), detailing that the operation and maintenance of these projects would add BRL 111 billion to energy bills between 2022 and 2036.
Considering the reference scenario of the Ten Year Energy Plan in progress, the values would jump from R$ 90 billion to 201 billion.
The energy tariff, in turn, would rise by 10% with inflexible thermal plants.
On the other hand, they say, these plants will dirty Brazil’s energy matrix, at a time when the world needs to invest in a clean energy transition.
The civil action highlights that the emissions from these thermal plants, between 2026, when the first project comes into operation, and 2044, with the last one, have the potential to generate an accumulated total of 340 million tons of tCO2e (acronym for tons of CO2 equivalent, which includes not only carbon dioxide but other greenhouse gases as well).
Per year, emissions could reach 22.63 million tons, which would be equivalent to an increase of 39% in relation to emissions from the electricity sector in 2021, according to a mapping carried out by Idec (Instituto de Defesa do Consumidor).
The NGO has stood out in movements that question major projects in the energy sector. Arayara also acted in court against the ANP (National Petroleum Agency) to limit exploration in the Abrolhos region. In the end, thanks to the mobilization, investors themselves gave up exploring the most critical regions.
Until the conclusion of this text, the Court had not expressed itself on the request.
Arayara is part of the Gas and Energy Coalition, which also includes ClimaInfo, Idec, Iema (Institute of Energy and Environment) and Inesc (Institute of Socioeconomic Studies).
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