Brazil's Aneel approves 51.8 MW of hydropower projects

Agencia Nacional de Energia Eletrica (Aneel), the Brazilian power regulator, has announced it has approved six hydropower plants with a total capacity of 51.77MW.

The six projects, which were won in an energy auction hold in September, are:

• 1 MW Willy Faller (Mafras Energia e Reflorestamento Ltda.)
• 1.3 MW Figueira (Centrais Eletricas Figueirao Ltda.)
• 5.2 MW Montovilis (Sao Benedito Energia and Investimentos e Participacoes SA)
• 9.9 MW Estivadinho 3 (Sao Benedito Energia and Investimentos e Participacoes SA)
• 10 MW Rincao (Rincao Energia SA)
• 24.4 MW Jui-117 (PCH Juina SA)

The projects are expected to commence operations on March, 1 2020.

In total, 30 projects with a combined capacity of 180.32 MW were secured at the auction, negotiated at BRL227.02 per MWh (US$67.78). However, Anel has approved just six of these projects.

In Brazil, power purchase agreements are awarded to developers who submit the lowest bids for the price of power to be sold from their plants.