Brazil's A-5 auction contracts USD 8.752bn hydro, biomass energy

Aug 30, 2013 - Brazil's A-5 energy auction, held yesterday by Brazil's energy clearing house CCEE, contracted hydro and biomass thermal energy for a total BRL 20.65 billion (USD 8.752bn/EUR 6.609bn).

The auction sold the concessions and the future output of 1,265 MW projects. The average price of the contracted electricity stood at BRL 124.97 per MWh. Under the auction's terms, the projects should start supplying their future power output to distributors as of January 1, 2018.

The auction had two phases. In the first, the government contracted the 400-MW Sinop hydro project to be built in central-western Mato Grosso state. Its concession was won by a consortium formed by federal utilities Eletronorte and Chesf. The plant's future production was sold for BRL 109.4 per MWh, down from the initially set price of BRL 118 per MWh.

In the second phase of the auction, the government sold the concessions of 647 MW sugar cane bagasse and wood residues-fuelled biomass thermal plants, and of eight small-scale hydro plants with combined capacity of 618.48 MW. The winners were local firms Amandina, Canto do Buriti, CGB, Delta, Eldorado, Energetica Santa Helena, Raizen and Tanabi, among others.

(BRL 1 = USD 0.424/EUR 0.32)

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