The LRCap (Capacity Reserve Auction), held between the 18th and 20th of March and which contracted 19.5 GW (gigawatts) of power from thermoelectric and hydroelectric plants, was necessary to provide security in the face of the expansion of renewable sources and could even have been a little bigger, in the view of Delta Energia’s institutional and regulatory vice-president, Luiz Fernando Viana.
Given this, the battery auction, being planned by the federal government, will be very important. “It should have happened already,” he told Capital Insights this Thursday (26).
According to him, batteries have the capacity to “shift consumption”, storing the excess energy that is observed during the day, when there is a lot of solar generation, and injecting this charge into the system during peak hours.
Therefore, they can help solve the problem of renewable generation cuts, known as .
Delta Energia, however, is not expected to participate in this first event, planned to take place in the middle of this year.
According to him, at the moment the company is just “looking” at a potential move further ahead. At LRCap, the company competed for and obtained contracts for two different products offered, which will enable the company to expand its Willian Arjona gas thermoelectric plant and build a new 168 MW (megawatt) plant.
On another front, the company is advancing in preparations for the opening of the free market for consumers served in low voltage, which is expected to occur in 2027 for commerce and in 2028 for homes.
As a result, the segment tends to grow from one to millions of users.
In addition to the regulation of this entire process, to be carried out by Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency), the challenge lies in adapting the way of communicating with customers, says the executive.
If until now energy traders were accustomed to more direct negotiations, even over the telephone, with the expansion of the potential market it will be necessary to move towards greater use of digital channels, which also requires the attraction of new professional profiles to work in the segment.
In the Delta executive’s view, consumers should be attracted to the free market due to the savings they can obtain on energy costs, which can reach up to 30%.
Even so, according to him, migration will not occur immediately after liberalization, but will be gradual over a period of approximately three years, reaching around 40% of the current 90 million consumers served by distributors.
O Capital Insights airs weekly at 7pm on Thursdays. The program is the result of a partnership between Broadcast and the CNN Money.
