Power generation is one of the most important State policies, ensuring sovereignty for the country in strategic areas for its socioeconomic development. During the Vargas era, in the 1930s, Brazil founded an energy structure focused on the generation of hydroelectric energy, with strong state support in the design and management of the production.
Developmental projects were strengthened during the government of Juscelino Kubitschek and in the years of the military dictatorship Brazilian, being part of a context of attracting international capital in the form of multinationals, stabilizing the access of population to electricity (due to the growth of the domestic consumption market) and to make extraction and processing possible of ores. Hydroelectric power plants such as Itaipu (Paraná river-PR), Tucuruí (Tocantins river-PA) and Sobradinho (São Francisco river - BA) served these purposes.
The 1990s became known as the period in which Brazil applied the so-called neoliberal policies in the most different sectors of the economy, based on the premise that the Brazilian State was deeply indebted and did not have the financial and technical conditions to maintain the administration of certain industries and services. Electric power generation and transmission were among the segments that were privatized.
In 2001, the country went through the biggest energy crisis in its history, with the occurrence of failures in the energy distribution and the institution of a rationing policy in the Southeast and Midwest. The episode became known as Blackout and exposed the fragility of the Brazilian energy sector and the lack of long-term planning for infrastructure development.
The Blackout was the result of several practices, such as the accelerated deregulation of the energy sector and lack of legal guarantees for energy utilities to invest in modernization technological. The demand for energy grew and was not accompanied by investments in energy generation, which is still understood to be a function of the State. Added to all these factors, the country has had a succession of longer dry seasons and summers with less rainfall, which left the reservoirs operating in a critical state, close to their Limits. Even in the face of the energy crisis, little was done regarding prevention policies, limited to construction of plants powered by natural gas to supply energy consumption in the event of new blackouts.
In all these decades, investment in hydroelectricity was supported by an apparently infinite potential of Brazilian water resources, given a natural scenario represented by a huge amount of mighty rivers, that is, with a large volume of water, due to the tropicality prevailing in the climates that involve most of the territory Brazilian. However, the renewability of water does not mean that this resource is infinite, or that its use does not cause environmental and social impacts. Another factor that has compromised the energy potential of waters in Brazil is the difficulty of different governments in articulating long-term proposals. deadline to plan the Brazilian energy matrix and a more balanced, efficient and capable of covering the entire territory of the distribution system national.
Julio César Lázaro da Silva
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Master in Human Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/planejamento-energetico-brasil-iminencia-uma-nova-crise-no-setor.htm