The scarce rains registered in recent months have complicated agricultural production and have also been a problem for the production of hydroelectric dams.
To ensure the supply of the demand, and at the same time take care of the water resource, UTE had to resort from the beginning of the year to the ignition of its thermal park. Up to now, this represented an expense in fuel (diesel and fuel oil) close to US$ 60 million.according to calculations made by The Observer.
Within this situation, an alternative that Uruguay has today is to resort to the purchase of energy from Brazilas long as there is availability at cheaper prices compared to the production costs in local power plants.
The option began to be used last Saturday when the import of energy from Brazil became operational. That day, an offer was made for a flat capacity of 498 MW per hour and at a price of US$ 57.7 MWh.
The energy acquired It is used to cover specific sections of the demand and is dispatched before the thermal units. A priori, it is expected to have this import throughout the week, and there are expectations that the operation will continue for a longer time. Today Brazil has surplus availability favored by rains recorded mainly in the north of its territory.
cheaper energy
Every day Uruguay will evaluate the convenience of buying. For example, the currently offered price (around US$ 60 MWh) is well below the current cost of the closed Punta del Tigre Combined Cycle (US$ 193.5 MWh) and that it will be able to use less.
A source from the electricity market explained to The Observer that in October 2022 Brazil enabled a new modality of export of turbinable discharges. For this, the trading companies must offer every day before 10 in the morning the price they are willing to pay for said surpluses for the following day.
Currently, Brazil has surplus turbines -energy that if they don’t sell it, they have to throw it through the landfills of the hydroelectric plants- and is selling in this new modality to both Argentina and Uruguay. Specifically, during a few hours on Monday, operations were interrupted due to work in the Brazilian system.
so far this year 28% of the energy demand in Uruguay was supplied with thermal energy. It is completed with wind (38.5%), biomass (7.1%), hydro (20.7%), solar (4.7%) and imports from Brazil (1%), according to data from the Market Administration Electric (ADME).
On the other hand, UTE data shows that in 2023 the Punta del Tigre plant, the combined cycle and, to a lesser extent, engines from Central Batlle have been used. This operation represented a cost close to US$ 1.5 million per day on average.
as reported The Observernegotiations to buy energy abroad had begun in the first weeks of January.
The electrical interconnection allowed Uruguay to make record exports to the northern country in 2021. And last year there was the particularity that Uruguay received electricity in transit from Brazil that was destined to supply the needs of the Argentine market.
“The three countries are currently optimizing the costs of the system in global terms. Every time it is cheaper for us to import than to turn on the thermals, we will do it,” the president of UTE, Silvia Emaldi, told Radiomundo’s En Perspectiva program last week.
The energy transfer is done by the Melo-Candiota converter stationwhich allows a transfer for a power of up to 500 MW and by the Rivera converter (70 MW).
“The forecasts of meteorology specialists tell us that around March or April the rains would resume in normal regimes. We would get out of the Niña effect, we would enter a neutral effect and towards a Niño that will occur around July or August”, added Emaldi.
