The Ministry of Mines and Energy reported that the Manaus-Boa Vista interconnection is 90% complete – the project is expected to be completed this year. The project, which cost R$2,6 billion, is expected to save Brazilian consumers R$1 billion per year, due to the reduction in the use of diesel-powered thermal plants, the cost of which is shared by all electricity consumers in the country.
The electrical interconnection between Manaus (AM) and Boa Vista (RR) has been one of the main energy infrastructure challenges in the North of Brazil in recent decades. The proposal to connect Roraima to the SIN (National Interconnected System) is old and has technical and economic motivations, especially because Roraima is the only Brazilian state that is not yet integrated into the SIN.
The proposal to build a transmission line of approximately 715 km between Manaus and Boa Vista aims to resolve this isolation. The project envisages the construction of a 500 kV transmission line, crossing environmentally sensitive areas, including indigenous lands such as the Waimiri Atroari Indigenous Land. This crossing has generated significant obstacles over the years, involving legal, environmental and indigenous rights issues.
The Manaus-Boa Vista electrical interconnection project was put out to tender in September 2011, when the auction was won by the “Boa Vista” consortium, composed of Eletronorte and Alupar. Since then, the project has faced several obstacles, especially environmental and indigenous issues, and only effectively moved forward in 2021/2022, with licenses issued and construction work beginning.
Since the 2000s, Roraima has operated in isolation from the rest of the Brazilian electrical system. Historically, a significant portion of the energy consumed in the state has been imported from Venezuela, via the 230 kV transmission line that connects Guri, in the neighboring country, to Boa Vista.
However, with the energy and political crisis in Venezuela, this source became unstable and was interrupted in 2019, making the state totally dependent on diesel-powered thermoelectric plants, an expensive, polluting and less reliable solution.
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