The energy company Light plans to complete the shielding of the electrical grid in seven areas of its concession in the state of Rio de Janeiro by December of this year. The company is currently working on the fifth area, according to information provided to Brazil Agency the company’s superintendent, Bruno Rodrigues.
“Network shielding is one of the projects that make up Light’s portfolio of loss-fighting initiatives. It is the main project in segmented areas, or risk areas, where we cannot act as we would in conventional treatment areas. Let’s say it is a transition zone, where the number of customers who repeat theft is very high. Shielding is currently our most efficient project in these areas,” he said.
The areas are located in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Duque de Caxias, Nova Iguaçu and Belford Roxo and have high rates of non-technical losses. According to Light, the challenge is great, since for every 100 regular customers, there are 34 who steal energy.
This is a long-term project. “We intend to install around 500,000 customers in the next four years, which corresponds to R$2.5 billion in investments.”
R$25 million was invested in the first phase. According to the superintendent, the project has been producing interesting results, managing to reduce energy loss from 90% to around 6% to 5% in some regions. “This is a significant result, given the national average.”
Light is carefully studying the next areas to move forward with the project. Priority will be given to the shielding carried out by Light in Baixada Fluminense and the northern and western regions of the city of Rio de Janeiro. “Something around 90% of this project covers Baixada Fluminense and the northern and western areas of Rio.”
Access to energy
Rodrigues highlighted that the shielding is not done against cable theft, but against energy theft.
The main objective is to prevent irregular and fraudulent consumers from having access to energy at domestic voltage levels in an unmetered manner.
“It prevents the customer from accessing energy that has not yet been measured. The shielding occurs when transforming the medium voltage, which are the cables we have on the streets, at greater heights on the poles, where the energy reaches 3,800 volts. This energy is not suitable for domestic consumption. The equipment that transforms this energy to domestic levels is the transformer.”
The company’s main focus is to ensure that this transformer, which is the main point of contact for illegal activities and fraud, is shielded so that, from this point onwards, the energy that goes to the residence is already measured.
The direct financial impact on the company’s cash flow from energy theft amounts to R$800 million per year. In terms of energy quality and the safety of people exposed to illegal connections, “the impact is incalculable,” said Rodrigues. “Because for us, human life comes first, and the practice of theft and illegal connections ends up putting it at risk,” he emphasized.
