“We are planning to carry out two public consultations throughout 2023: the first of them on AIR (Regulatory Impact Analysis) and the second on regulations, so that we have the regulation of the use of ready storage from the first half of 2024. This is our schedule.”
That's what he said Sandoval Feitosa, general director of ANEEL, during the Opening of first large-scale battery energy storage project of the Brazilian transmission system, recently energized at the Registro Substation (SP).
However, Feitosa said that, like what happened in Registro, other solutions will not fail to be implemented until next year if they are brought to the Agency.
“Storage can be used in transmission, distribution and also as a generation solution. What we have to keep in mind is that the generation sector is competitive, where the Agency’s regulation is less inclusive”, he pointed out.
“So, I would say that our biggest concern is the regulated segments, such as transmission and distribution. Since the use of batteries, for example, in generation – if we evaluate it in the broadest sense – it is already ready because we approved the hybridization of electrical power plants, so, with few adjustments, it is possible to use it in electricity generation ”, highlighted the director.
Integration between storage and solar
For the executive, the storage resource can be a great solution, both for centralized and small distributed solar generation, since the country currently has a monomial and volumetric tariff.
“This characteristic is unique in the world. Few countries have this tariff structure. Therefore, surely in the future, there will be a new tariff structure, which involves differentiating the value of electricity throughout the day. In this case, storage is essential for solar photovoltaic generation to be increasingly competitive”, he emphasized.
Advantages of batteries
According to Sandoval Feitosa, batteries provide ancillary services, greater resilience and flexibility to the transmission and network control system. “They will be fundamental in the future with the increasing inclusion of renewable sources, which have variability as a very large characteristic in their operation”.
“If we want to take advantage of Brazil’s capacity to generate energy from renewable sources and take advantage of battery production capacity – a front that is not open in Brazil today and that the current Minister of Mines and Energy has increasingly said that the The country is a mining power – we have to explore minerals and produce wealth, and batteries are a great opportunity together with renewables”, he concluded.