Brazil has an extensive National Interconnected System (SIN) which is responsible for serving almost of the entire country's electricity demand, whose consumption reached 509 TWh in 2022. Around 11% of national consumption is concentrated in the Legal Amazon area, which covers the entire northern region of the country, and the states of Mato Grosso (in the central-west) and part of Maranhão (in the northeast), covering around 60% of the national territory and 14% of the population.
The Amazon region contains important hydropower plants, which account for around 25% of the country's hydropower park. The region is an exporter of electricity, helping to meet demand from other regions and providing flexibility to accommodate variable renewable energy supply.
The Legal Amazon also concentrates most of the isolated energy systems, which account for around 0.6% of national consumption. Despite the marginal size of consumption not connected to the SIN, its supply cost is high and emissions from diesel generation reached around 11% of the SIN's emissions in 2022. Considering consumption of around 4 TWh, the average cost of generation is R$2,777/MWh. A substantial part of this cost is subsidized by consumers in the SIN. The region is also facing significant economic and social challenges, including high rates of electricity theft at low voltage, which jeopardizes the economic and financial sustainability of distributors.
Understanding the energy demand in the Amazon in its various dimensions - economic, social, technical, and environmental - is crucial in the search for a just energy transition, with guaranteed access to safe, sustainable and affordable energy. The region will host COP 30 in 2025, which will take place in Belém do Pará. Alongside the challenges of preventing deforestation and seeking to preserve biodiversity, the country must not fail to structure and promote the energy transition in the region.
The privatization of Eletrobras in 2021 defined the contribution of R$ 295 million annually for a period of ten years, adjusted for inflation, to be used in the program to structurally reduce generation costs in the Legal Amazon. Implementing renewable solutions in isolated systems can help to reduce the total cost of generation and its subsidies, as well as providing clean energy to remote locations. The development of micro-grids can unlock the development of renewable energy in isolated systems, favoring the replacement of polluting fossil sources and overcoming the historical paradigm of interconnection as a single solution for access.
The aim of this paper is to present the main characteristics of the energy currently consumed in the Amazon, in terms of composition, costs and emissions in relation to the Brazilian average. The paper will present the current challenges and opportunities for decarbonization in the region, focusing on the public policies available and the resources already defined. Finally, it will propose in general terms a way of taking advantage of the resources allocated to reducing structural generation costs, multiplying the capital already committed through other forms and sources of funding.
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