Specter of energy rationing looms heavily over Brazil

Brazil’s Energy Minister denied reports Wednesday that a short supply of natural gas from Bolivia and a lack of rain might force Brazil, which relies heavily on hydroelectric power, to ration energy later this year.

Nelson Hubner said Brazil’s situation today is “very different from 2001,” when the low level of water in dam reservations forced the government to ration energy. “There’s no cause for alarm,” he told the government news agency Agencia Brasil.


Jerson Kelman, general director of the national electric energy agency, raised the specter of rationing in an interview with the O Globo newspaper of Rio de Janeiro: “It’s not impossible we’ll need rationing this year, but it’s most probable we won’t”.

Rainfall in the beginning of January was 55% lower than usual, O Globo said, and low reservoir levels prompted officials to switch on all thermoelectric power plants to reduce the strain on hydroelectric dams that generate more than 80% of its electric energy.

But Kelman said that Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras, does not have enough natural gas to fuel the thermoelectric plants, mainly because of rising domestic demand and supply hurdles in Bolivia, which provides 50% of Brazil’s gas.

MercoPress