Director General of Itaipu delivers FGV Energia lecture

On September 28, the Director General of Itaipu Power Plant, Jorge Miguel Samek, delivered the lecture “Itaipu contribution for the development of Brazil and Paraguay” at Getúlio Vargas Foundation. This event was part of the program Energy in Focus held by FGV Energia.

At the time, Jorge presented the main plant’s data, explaining the context of its construction, in 1975, and also talked about its mission of generating quality power with social and environmental responsibility, thus boosting the economic, touristic and technological, sustainable development in Brazil and Paraguay. He also emphasized how important the institution is as regional integrator, highlighting the main points favoring its existence: final settlement of a border conflict; legal engineering and financial architecture; integration model with fairness and respect for asymmetries among countries; and legal safety of the Itaipu Binational Treaty, ratified by the respective congresses.

Another topic addressed by Samek were the good sustainability practices adopted by the plant, internationally known for its institutional programs, such as “Cultivando Água Boa” – socio-environmental initiative prepared to tackle climatic changes, which threaten human survival and are directly related with water and its multiple uses (production of food and energy, public supply, leisure and tourism). 

He also talked about the plant’s high power rates in 2016, which will be pressured by the strengthening of the dollar against the Brazilian real. Samek also explained that the calculation to define the rate in 2015 considered one dollar at 2.60 Brazilian reais; however, with the currency fluctuation, reaching more than R$ 4.00 in the last few days and causing direct impact in the tariff, this changes.  The plant has until the next month to define the dollar currency that will be used to comprise the rate for 2016.

For the next year, Samek bets on an improvement of the hydrological regime to minimize of the high Us currency on rates. If the expected improvement becomes a reality, more thermal plants will be shut down and the own concessionaires that generate power could have a more balanced finance.

The next meeting will be held on October 20 with ANP - Brazilian National Agency of Oil, Natural Gas and Biofuels Director General, Magda Chambriard.