Water Scarcity Flag will no longer be in force from May

From May onwards, the ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency) will no longer charge the Water Scarcity flag on Brazilians' electricity bills. The information was verified by Solar Channel with the Agency this Tuesday (29).

In force since September last year, the scarcity tariff was created to compensate for the increased cost generated by the water crisis experienced by the country at that time.

At the end of 2021, the reservoirs of the Southeast and Central-West Hydroelectric Plants, responsible for 70% of the country's hydroelectric generation, reached operate with less than 20% of capacity, the lowest level in 91 years.

In this ocasion, two of the main hydroelectric plants in the subsystem were operating at dead volume – term used by experts to refer to the moment when the water in dams drops below the catchment level.

This is water that was not designed to be used on a daily basis, but which works as a kind of “savings” in cases of emergency.

According to ANEEL, the flag for the month of May will be announced on April 29th, and can be green, yellow or red (at level 1 or 2), just as it was before the creation of the water scarcity tariff.  

Matrix diversification 

Currently, more than 80% of the Brazilian energy matrix is renewable, through the generation of water, wind, solar, biomass sources, among others. Despite this, studies highlight that it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that a renewable matrix is not necessarily sustainable. 

A good example of this is the case of hydroelectric plants, which, in times of water crisis, as was the case last year, have demonstrated their limitations in fully meeting the national energy demand. 

It is in this context that Heleno Quevedo de Lima, researcher and consultant on biogas and solar energy projects, highlights the need for the country to work towards the diversification of the energy matrix. “In recent years, we have had significant growth in solar and wind sources, which helped to minimize the impacts of the water crisis,” he said. 

“With climate change, some rain cycles are changing and some regions, which previously expected a greater volume of rain, have now recorded little incidence. And this affects the entire planning of the national hydrotechnical system”, he highlighted. 

According to him, Brazil must open its eyes to new strategic alternatives in order to prevent problems like those that occurred last year from happening again. 

“We have to have different strategies and value production, not just on a large scale, from sources such as solar, wind and biomass energy to bring national security and predictability to the system”, he highlighted. 

“When we have a system that can predict risks, this helps to provide security for investors, consumers and even for planning the country's economic growth, because there is an energy demand that will not be at risk. of being compromised if a source is missing”, he concluded.