Reservoirs have the best level since 2012, shows ONS

After the worst water crisis in the country in 91 years, experienced in 2021, Brazil is experiencing the best situation in hydroelectric reservoirs since 2012, which will reach the dry season this year with average storage levels between 40% and 50%, compared to 17%. in the same period last year, Luiz Ciocchi, general director of the National System Operator (ONS) informed Estadão/Broadcast, Grupo Estado’s real-time news system.

The “quietness” of 2022, however, was not caused by more intense rains, but by better management of the flow of some plants, said Ciocchi.

“Since 2012, I haven’t had a situation as comfortable as we have now, and it’s not because of exceptional rain. The rain was good in rainy weather, the entire wet season that started last year started at the right time, while in 2020/2021 it was delayed a lot”, explained the executive.

Thermoelectric plants, which accounted for half of the country’s energy generation last year, will be little used this year. At the moment, even in the midst of the dry season, they account for just over 14% of the total generated.

Flow control focused on the Rio Grande and Rio Paraná basins, considered the “water box” of Brazil. Ciocchi points out that the Furnas plant, the largest reservoir in the country, reached 80% of the total volume, but now it starts to lose volume until November, the beginning of the rainy season.

In São Paulo, the Jupiá and Porto Primavera plants also reduced the flow to save energy for the dry season, after a “wide discussion with ANA (National Water Agency) and IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources) ”, says Ciocchi.

According to the executive, it was impossible to manage these reservoirs with the release of 4,900 cubic meters of water per second from the plants. “Today, it is at 3,900 cubic meters, and it once operated at 2,900.”

The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.