Eletrobras decides to leave coal and demobilize more polluting thermal plants

As part of a strategy to reduce polluting gas emissions in its activities, Eletrobras decided to stop operating its most polluting thermal plants, such as small oil and gas plants in the North region and the Candiota 3 coal plant in Rio Grande do Sul .

The goal of the newly privatized company is to become a leader in the sector in low carbon emissions, a position currently held by the Norwegian company Statkraft, said on Thursday (10) the company’s president, Wilson Ferreira Junior.

In an interview to detail the loss of BRL 88,000 recorded by the company in the third quarter, he reinforced that he still did not see a conflict between Eletrobras’ strategy and the elected government, arguing that the former state-owned company now has more investment capacity and will focus on business environmentally sustainable.

The idea is to keep only two thermal plants in its portfolio, Santa Cruz, in Rio de Janeiro, and Mauá 3, in Amazonas. Both use gas as fuel and are designed to operate in a combined cycle, a more efficient system.

The thermal plants in the northern region should begin to be demobilized or sold according to the conclusion of the works on the transmission line between Manaus and Boa Vista, one of Eletrobras’ main investment projects.

Candiota, on the other hand, has his energy sales contract expiring at the end of 2024 and Ferreira Junior said that there is great difficulty in obtaining a new contract for coal-fired thermal plants. Thus, the company can seek interested parties to maintain operations or simply demobilize the plant.

The exit from this project, said the president of Eletrobras, is an important part of the company’s goal of reducing emissions by 54% over the next two years.

The thermal plant is located in the municipality of the same name, which today depends on the coal industry. The plant’s closure is a cause for concern among the local population. Ferreira Junior said he sees the possibility that a company may acquire the project to operate as an emergency thermal plant.

In this Thursday’s interview, Ferreira Junior said that Eletrobras plans to sell BRL 4.4 billion in non-strategic assets. In this process, he negotiates with partners the restructuring of his interests in generation and transmission companies, the so-called SPE’s (special purpose companies).

There are currently 64 companies, with 14.2 thousand kilometers of transmission lines and 25.2 GW (gigawatts) of installed capacity. There were already 178, when Ferreira Junior took over the company for the first time, during the Michel Temer government.

Eletrobras should present a new strategic plan at the end of January. The idea is to focus on renewable energies, reduce operating and financing costs and position itself better in the free energy market, in addition to cutting emissions of polluting gases.

Asked about possible conflicts between the now private company and the elected government, which has already used it to promote investments in the sector, the president of Eletrobras said that “the agenda that we have as Eletrobras is clearly very much in line with any government”.

“The agenda for Brazil is to attract private capital to induce the generation of employment and income,” he said. “The capitalized Eletrobras has an investment capacity twice three times what it had in the past.”