Eight companies, including the Brazilian Eletrobras, the Portuguese EDP and the investment bank BTG, were awarded 15 concessions to tender and operate 6,464 kilometres of power transmission lines in Brazil auctioned by the Government.
The winners of the auction pledged to receive net income of 44.66% below the maximum value set by the Government, the National Power Agency (Aneel).
The big winner was Eletrobras, privatized in 2022, which awarded four of the fifteen concessions. The auction allows the electric giant to confirm itself as the largest transmission line operator in Brazil, where it manages 73,000 kilometers, 40% of the national electricity network.
The EDP subsidiary in Brazil obtained three licenses to operate transmission lines and Fondo Warehouse, controlled by the investment bank BTG Pactual, three more, including the right for the largest and most disputed of the concessions (a 951 kilometre line between the states of Bahia and Minas Gerais).
The other five concessions were shared by Brazil Brasiluz, Cox Brasil, Consorcio Olympus XVII, Energisa and Paraná IV.
The new lines will have to be operating between 2027 and 2030 depending on the complexity of each of the concessions.
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The winners pledged to invest about USD 3.714.3 million in the construction of the transmission lines. The awarded lines will pass through 14 of the 27 Brazilian states, mainly those located in the northeast, where several wind and solar projects are not yet connected to the national electricity system.
This was the third auction of transmission line concessions since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed the presidency of Brazil, in January 2023, with the commitment to strengthen electricity supply in the southeast, Brazil’s most populous region, with renewable energy generated in the northeast that reaches 23 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity.
It was also the second largest auction in terms of the volume of investments contracted in Brazil’s history, only surpassed by the tender conducted in December last year. The sum of these two auctions will allow the investment of about USD 11,428.6 million, according to data provided by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
