CO-GENERATION MODULAR PLANTS
A COMPETITIVE ALTERNATIVE TO BE EXPLORED

The matrix of electrical energy generation in Brazil is strongly anchored in hydroelectric generation.

The Brazilian engineering has developed, for 50 years, a technology that has allowed very well to make good use of the energy of our rivers by building big dams, forming artificial lakes and installing hydroelectric plants which has provided electric power for the growth and development of the country without depending on oil.
Today, however, new hydroelectric uses, economic and environmentally viable are more and more distant and scarce.

There is no way to avoid that in the next few years Brazil will depend on a growing thermoelectric generation to sustain its development.

With the growing demand, two major challenges are presented: Reduce the large loss of energy in the transmission lines that are more and more extensive; and increase the reliability of the system, reducing the likelihood of subsequent falls of transmission lines, which bring the blackouts, with the already known and huge economic and security losses to the society.

The large thermoelectric plants, which were built in the emergency energy plan, are a part of the solution of the problem and, in spite of the criticism about its cost to the society, they should, after some time, justify their need.

The increase of the confirmed reserves of Natural Gas – NG in Brazil opens new horizons for the thermoelectric generation, first because of the lower cost in comparison to diesel and secondly because, unlike diesel oil, the NG is not a commodity with prices floating heavily in the world market and without internal control.

There is a natural protection that drives the use of the Natural Gas - NG to points next to where the deposits are found. Today, the most economical way to transport it, through the oceans, from a continent to another one, is by cooling at a temperature of – 176º C, a situation in which it is liquified. The cost of cryogenic ships is very high and the required energy to operate these ships consumes much of the liquefied natural gas - LNG that is being transported.

For the transporting of NG on the ground, the technology available has proven to be economically viable and much more reliable and less subject to breakdowns than the electricity transmission lines, either by vandalism or weather conditions. Another relevant fact is that the reserves of Brazilian NG, both on the ground, in Rio Grande do Norte and in Amazonas, as at sea, at the continental platform of Campos and Santos, are very close to the major centers of energy consumption and its use in the generation of electricity allows the increase of offer without the need for large investments in transmission lines.