Last year, Brazil experienced the biggest water shortage crisis in the last 90 years. Because of this, the country had to buy electricity from abroad and activate the thermoelectric plants that operate on Brazilian soil. To finance the extra expenses, a new electricity tariff banner was created: the water scarcity flag. The forecast by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, however, is that it will no longer be necessary in the middle of of seace or april. 
According to Albuquerque, there is still no way to predict what the water scenario will be like in 2022, but there is an expectation that it will be better than last year. The minister said that water conditions in 2021 were 8% better than in 2020 thanks to measures taken by the government.
“Our expectation for the end of the wet season (March, April) is to be in much better conditions than we were last year”. According to him, consumers – large, medium and small – did their part. “I say it was a collective effort”, he guarantees.
Also according to the minister, the government worked so that there was no possibility of rationing or blackout. Bento Albuquerque mentioned that countries like the United States and China had to ration energy, which Brazil did not.
Oil auctions and other matters
In the interview with the program Brazil on the agenda, Bento Albuquerque also spoke about the Brazilian energy matrix, about the advance of solar energy – which grew 132% last year – and about the oil auctions. According to him, production grew 14% in the last three years.
As Brazilian oil has a low carbon content, it becomes more attractive to investors. The government also collaborated, providing legal and regulatory certainty and predictability to the process. “And all this is only possible with planning”, he concludes.
THE Brazil on the agenda goes on air this Sunday, at 7:30 pm on TV Brazil.
