EN 
PT_BR 
Copel (Companhia Paranaense de Energia) announced that it will invest R$ 820 million to modernize the management and distribution of electricity in Paraná. The initiative is part of the Smart Electricity Network Program, launched on Wednesday (9) in a ceremony held at Palácio Iguaçu, in Curitiba.
In the first phase, 151 municipalities in the East, Central-South, Southwest and West regions will receive the automated energy distribution network. With the new system, consumer units will receive digital meters, which communicate directly with Copel's operations center.
According to the company, the technology will reduce the shutdown time caused by bad weather and other factors external to the system. Furthermore, it will make it possible to read consumption remotely and allow the customer to have the autonomy to monitor their energy consumption in real time, among other benefits.
The investment in this stage will bring the new technology to 4.5 million people from Paraná, in residential units and urban and rural businesses. Copel's smart network will be the largest in Brazil, using a model that already exists in countries such as the United States and Japan.
“Paraná is the largest energy producer in the country and this project will modernize the state’s electrical grid, allowing a leap in the development of agribusiness,” said governor Carlos Massa Ratinho Júnior.
According to Daniel Slaviero, CEO of Copel, the technology will allow the company to reduce costs, improving the quality of energy supply. “It is the largest smart electrical grid program in the country”, he highlighted.
For André Pepitone, general director of ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency), the launch of the Smart Electric Network occurs in line with the movements of the global electricity sector, which has been transforming to promote greater consumer protagonism, the inclusion of new technologies and in line with growing environmental concerns.
Rodrigo Limp, Secretary of Electric Energy at the MME (Ministry of Mines and Energy), commented that the initiative by Copel and the government of Paraná is aligned with the transformations and modernization that the Federal Government expects and is working to make happen in the sector. .
Technological future
According to Maximiliano Orfali, general director of Copel, the new devices will have the potential to integrate other services in the future, such as distributed microgeneration, energy storage technologies, control of public lighting and supplying electric cars.
Another possibility will be to identify areas of energy losses and theft that increase the tariff, contributing to the efficiency of the installations. The smart grid will also feature automatic voltage regulators.
“We will soon have a demand for electric cars, and cities demand new solutions. Smart networks will be fundamental for smart cities, for public lighting, traffic lights and data integration, where the sky is the limit”, concluded Orfali.
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