By Glycon Garcia / Published on Fri, 2009-06-12 08:35
In late 2006, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the International Copper Association, and AES Eletropaulo, an electricity distribution company, embarked as partners on an ambitious project in São Paulo, Brazil to test their integrated approach to slum electrification and loss reduction.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Fri, 2009-01-30 11:15
Leonardo ENERGY has launched a Spanish website aimed at providing information to the Spanish-speaking community of professionals.
More than 440 million people speak Spanish. It is the official language in 21 countries, and is also widely spoken in the US and Brazil. This language represents an enormous cultural, social and economic value. The growing environmental requirements for a sustainable world place these countries in a very relevant position thanks to their natural and renewable resources.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-02-14 09:00
Based on a Discussion Webinar, Friday 26 January 2008
In the industrialized countries, the transport sector is responsible for about one quarter of all energy consumption, so a low carbon solution is imperative.
Biofuel has been promoted as being green, but lately it received more opposition from green NGOs than any other transport fuel.
Is biofuel the long-awaited sustainable solution for the transport sector? Or are the drawbacks bigger than the advantages and should we put our efforts in other solutions?
Leonardo Energy addressed this subject on a Discussion Webinar on 26 January 2008. The following are a few of the major points arising from that discussion.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2007-12-19 16:13
By J Rubens Macedo et al
The goal of this paper is to present the results and analysis related to the impact of the FIFA World Cup 2006 TV broadcast, during the National Brazilian Soccer Team games, on the Power Quality in the electric distribution systems, mainly in the current and voltage harmonic frequencies. This way, a metering campaign of power quality indexes was implemented in three different cities of Brazil, namely: Guarulhos (SP), Vitória (ES) and Campo Grande (MS).
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:26
ICA and USAID hope that the project in Paraisópolis will be the first of many. According to Garcia, in theory there is a lot of money that could become available for slum electrification projects; money from international development organizations, NGOs, and local governments. Many utility companies may also be interested in investing in these sorts of projects.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:21
It looks like the total approach of the Paraisópolis project is already paying off. It is estimated that 80 percent of the residential consumers have joined the project. Currently, project staff are working hard on the implementation. After completing the installation of a new grid with anti-theft coax cables, people were supplied with a safe, official connection, together with energy efficient light bulbs and refrigerators and advice on how to save energy.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:21
‘We followed a different approach in Paraisópolis’, says Garcia. ‘We are also using anti-theft coax cables, but the social part of the project is just as important. We created several working groups in the area, involving many people from the neighbourhood itself. And we ensured that other staff working there has a strong understanding of the mentality of the favela.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:20
‘The project in Paraisópolis is not the first slum electrification project in Brazil’, notes Garcia. ‘In Rio de Janeiro city, where non-technical losses amount to 40 per cent, the local utilities have tried similar projects. But after a few years, there were high rates of recidivism. Even advanced technology like remote connection control and anti-theft cables could not prevent people from making illegal connections again.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:18
‘If everything works out as we expect, the project should be a winner for all parties’, continues Garcia. ‘As for the utilities, they will now be able to bill for the energy they are supplying anyway.’ It is very important for them to reduce their non-technical losses. The government has set a cap on the percentage of the non-technical losses the utilities can charge through to the other customers, and this cap is expected to gradually grow stricter.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:15
However, given the previous high levels of energy that favela residents are consuming, the electricity bills would be so high that few would be willing or able to pay, despite all of the advantages. ‘That is why we are putting so much effort into energy efficiency’, says Garcia.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:14
‘We chose the slum of Paraisópolis for the pilot project in the Eletropaulo service area because of its high non-technical losses. We also felt that such a project would have a high probability of success in that location’, recalls Garcia.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:11
Paraisópolis is not a unique case. In Brazil alone, the number of people living in slums is estimated to be two million. Similar situations exist in many other countries in Latin-America, Africa, and Asia. That is why the International Copper Association (ICA) and USAID launched the Slum Electrification and Loss Reduction Programme (SERL) in October 2005.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:10
That the community is informal does not however mean that there is no electricity grid in the area. Brazilian law number 10.438, which went into effect in April 2002, mandates that utilities cover 100 per cent of their service area. ‘The overhead lines are there, but nobody pays for a connection’, explains Garcia.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:04
The following article is the result of a discussion with Glycon Garcia providing an insight of a project of slum electrification in São Paulo, Brazil. The article is published as an eBook so you can scroll the different pages using the titles bellow. The full article is also available right.
Glycon Garcia, leader of the sustainable electrical energy programme of ICA Latin America and manager of the pilot project, describes the situation in the favela.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Mon, 2007-05-07 14:09
Electricity theft is not only a safety hazard, but also leads to excessive consumption, as well as hampering development. Regularising the situation leads to several unexpected benefits.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Mon, 2007-05-07 13:40
Recognising the very large, growing number of slum residents lacking legal, safe and affordable access to electricity in developing countries, the International Copper Association (ICA), in cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), launched the Slum Electrification and Loss Reduction Program (SELR) in October 2005. One of the selected cities was São Paulo in Brazil, in which was identified Paraisópolis, a slum area in the middle of the city, to develop a pilot project in partnership with AES Eletropaulo, local utility; Nexans, cable manufacturer and Itaipu, transformer manufacturer.
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By Hans Nilsson / Published on Fri, 2007-01-26 06:46
In some of the comments in Europe (let us be tactful and avoid names) to the issue of climate change and the need for measures, there has been an undertone of self-righteousness, rather than willingness to act. Some have said that many of the European countries are so small that it does not matter what they do. Some have gone as far as saying that focus should be shifted to countries like China, India and Brazil and others. Absolutely, but how?
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Sat, 2006-09-23 10:19
All energy technologies have major advantages and disadvantages, and hydropower is no exception. In this briefing paper, Juergen Giesecke from Energie-Fakten presents a comprehensive overview of pros and cons, and a message that dams can make a major contribution to mankind's energy (and food) supply, provided that we exploit the pros while mitigating and managing the cons.
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