Brazil's Power Grid
The "Basic Grid"
Overview
The general legal framework for the Brazilian energy sector is established in the Brazilian Federal Constitution. Since the late 1980s, the energy sector has experienced several restructurings, aiming to facilitate private investment and create sector security. Today, the power trading market is divided into the regulated market and the free market.
Electricity mix
Brazil's electricity mix is cleaner than most countries (Figure 1).
Basic Grid
Brazil’s electric energy (EE) production and transmission is a large and widespread system, with predominance of hydropower plants of multiple owners. Such interconnected system, formally “SIN-Sistema Interligado Nacional" (AKA “Basic Grid”), provides the transfer of energy between subsystems, allows synergistic gains, and explores the diversity between the hydrological regimes of basins, serving the market in a safe, efficient, and economical way. Figure 2 shows Brazil's Basic Grid.
Figure 1: Brazil's (clean) electricity mix
Figure 2: Basic Grid (Brazil's transmission system)
