Grid operator drafts emergency plan to avoid end-of-year outages

Brazil’s grid operator has put together an emergency playbook for a paradox that would have sounded absurd a decade ago: how to avoid power cuts caused by excess electricity. After coming close to a full blackout in August, the National System Operator (ONS) submitted a “Surplus Energy Management Plan” to the electricity regulator Aneel on Friday, October 31. 

The protocol would allow the ONS, as a last resort, to order distributors to curb output from smaller plants it does not directly supervise — especially small hydro stations and biomass units — adding new “flexible resources” to the curtailments it already imposes on large wind, solar and hydro facilities. 

The ONS says activation is unlikely but clarifies roles in the event of an emergency. “What we are discussing here is quite specific, but fundamental for system security in more atypical situations,” said Christiano Vieira, the ONS’s operations director.