EN 
PT_BR 
In exclusive interview to the Solar Channel, Luiz Eduardo Diniz Araújo, former ANEEL attorney, commented on the main themes involving the Brazilian electrical sector, such as the August blackout, the distributed generation law and the prospects for solar energy in the country.
O former prosecutor criticized fake news that circulated after the blackout which affected 12 Brazilian states, which blamed the privatization of Eletrobrás and wind and solar generation.
He said these accusations were made without any data analysis, and that the ONS (National Electric System Operator) must clarify the causes of the event in a scientific way.
“It was a real disaster, because very hastily some political actors began to blame the privatization of Eletrobrás and wind and solar generation without any data analysis. In the electricity sector, we know that an analysis without data is not valid, as it is a mere opinion”, he said.
He explained that the ONS released the RAP (Disturbance Analysis Report) informing that some protection schemes for solar wind farms did not act as expected, but that this does not mean that they caused the blackout.
“What the ONS said is that some solar wind farm protection schemes did not act as expected, that is, they did not turn off the plants when they should have turned off. This does not mean that they caused the blackout, but rather that they did not contribute to the stability of the system. This is very different from saying that they were responsible for the blackout”, he stated.
He also argued that the electrical system he must adapt to wind and solar generation, which are essential for the purification of the Brazilian energy matrix and for fulfilling Brazil's international commitments.
“If it is confirmed that there was a penetration of wind or solar plants at that time, the electrical system itself will have to develop, as there is no way for you to go to the place where the problem occurred and remove the plants from where they are. The investments that were made in the implementation of the plants must be preserved and the system must seek to accommodate this type of generation, which is essential for the purification of our matrix and for meeting Brazil's international commitments”, he argued.
He also revealed the behind the scenes of Law 14,300, which established the legal framework for microgeneration and distributed minigeneration of electricity in Brazil.
The former prosecutor also commented the process of creating the Law between parliamentarians and representatives of the solar energy sector and how the final result of the GD legal framework turned out. He classified the ANEEL's delay in regulating the law, which should have been done within 180 days after its sanction, is irresponsible.
“This deliberation was supposed to have been issued long before February this year, as it had been ready since July 2022. ANEEL took its time and did not meet the deadline to regulate Law 14,300 within 180 days”. The reason, explained Luiz Eduardo, was the delay in changing the rapporteur, “after taking over he still needed to find out about the matter”, he recalled.
Araújo also said that the Law 14,300 was the result of an agreement between parliamentarians and representatives of the solar energy sector, but it did not come out in the exact terms that the agreement had been agreed upon.
“I followed very closely all the discussions related to the Regulation of Law 14,300, which has a history of a search for consensus among all sectors. The big point of divergence arose because Law 14,300 did not come out in the exact terms that the agreement had been agreed upon between deputies and senators”, he said.
He also stated that there was a frustration of much of the solar energy sector, who expected “something much better”. Araújo also said that this was the reason that led interested parties to “in a completely natural way” try to “enforce their vision in the legal sphere”.
“The solar energy sector expected something much better than what came out in Law 14,300. They hoped that the law would be more favorable to distributed generation, that it would maintain the electrical energy compensation system, that it would not impose power or consumption limits, that it would not create additional fees or charges. But the law did not come out like that. It came out with a series of restrictions and conditions that displeased the sector. And then, in a completely natural way, they tried to assert their vision in the legal sphere, filing lawsuits and precautionary measures to try to suspend or modify the law”, he explained.
Choice of successor
Finally, the former prosecutor spoke about the choosing his successor and what the Agency's behind-the-scenes look like. He said that there were disagreements between the directors on important issues, that the prosecutor's office must be independent and that there must be no political interference in the appointment of the attorney general.
“Over a few years ago, we (ANEEL) started to have some disagreements in the board and this was a major challenge for the prosecutor's office, which cannot be a defense arm for one director against another. The prosecutor’s office has to be independent,” he said.
https://canalsolar.com.br/indicacao-para-procurador-da-aneel-provoca-racha-na-diretoria-e-suspende-reuniao/
“There was a first split in the prosecutor's office in Conta-Covid, then there was a second split in the judgment on the GSF regulation. Subsequently, we had a peculiar performance by a certain director in the case of the PSTS, which generated public wear and tear on the Agency with the then minister Adolfo Sachsida. Later, there was still another challenge, which was the monocratic nature of the RSR”, he reported.
He also commented on the choosing your successor, which would have been made by the general director of ANEEL, without the consensus of the other directors. “I don’t know to what extent there was a lack of conversation between the general director and the other directors. I repeat: the prosecutor's office is not a political body, there should be no political interference in the choice of the head and the successor name must be chosen by all his peers”, he stated.
4 Responses
Prisoners,
My first comment is that when it comes to law to provide legal stability it is something reckless in Brazil, for obvious reasons regarding how political interests are treated.
The second, regarding the ONS reports and their interpretations, are very vague and scattered. It was very easy to blame wind and solar generation, but in my limited knowledge I don't see how.
When people say that solar and wind plants didn't shut down when they should have, I keep imagining that the entire system went down and the generation didn't, that's a Greek tragedy. The protection system does not work in such a simple way. It is a chain of events that has many aspects to analyze. A generation plant has a Substation (let's call it SEg) that has its protections and is connected to a bus from another SE (let's call it SEt). If the SEt receives a permissionary shutdown signal from another SE, it switches off and the generation is isolated from the system and so the SEg, detecting a lack of voltage on the line, also switches off or as they are trying to say that it did not switch off, but that is a problem generation, for the system the problem has already been properly resolved.
But let's say that the problem was a voltage drop where wind or solar generation was unable to compensate for this drop. As a result, the generation shut down, further aggravating the voltage drop, causing a protective shutdown sequence. Well, now I have to point out my profound lack of knowledge of the inverters in the large wind or solar generation system, but from the looks of it these inverters do not have this compensation power and if they do, the parameters are defined by the regulatory bodies. In a hydroelectric plant, this compensation is done through an increase in generation, making the generators run faster with the increase in water flow. In wind or solar generation, it is not possible to increase the sun or wind, but to a certain extent it can be done electronically, such as a capacitor bank, etc., but this configuration must be provided for in regulatory body standards. So in my opinion, the regulatory departments are eating flies, they are not simulating the system correctly.
What this comment narrates is a political fight without going into the merits of political solar destruction within Aneel, in short a black box of solar destruction with resolutions like these. 1059 which has 335 destructive pages. What to do if even the ballot boxes deceive us? how far we have come. This guy said a lot of things that didn't solve anything there and he's now speaking from the outside, because he didn't act, because it's not what Aneel wants there, but lobbyists for politicians and parties behind the scenes.
As far as I was able to follow, I can say that Dr. Luiz Eduardo's work at the head of PF/Aneel was carried out with care, competence and openness to dialogue.
Good morning, this is because in Brazil there is no politics but politicking, with this we all pay a very high bill, which is already being charged by nature, only them “dumb”, with all due respect to the animals that do not deserve to be compared with Brazilian politicians, who are a true “cancer”, a “disgrace”, they want to take advantage of everything!