Brazil's Aneel puts off launch of 258 MW wind farms to 2015

Sep 25, 2014 - Brazilian electricity sector regulator Aneel postponed for 2015 of the start-up of 10 wind power plants with total capacity of 258 MW in the southern Rio Grande do Sul state.

The reason for the postponement is a delay in the construction of the transmission lines and substation planned to handle the 10 plants' future electricity output. The concessions for the farms Verace I to X in Santa Vitoria do Palmar municipality were won in the Brazilian government's energy auction in 2011. The project companies are 51%-owned by local firm Brave Wind Geradora.

Under the concession agreements signed after the auction, the wind parks should have been operational on March 1, 2014.

This is the second delay to the wind plants' launch after Aneel changed the project timetable in June, setting October 26 as a new deadline for power generation start. However, the power substation Santa Vitoria do Palmar, being built by local firm Transmissora Sul Litoranea de Energia (TSLE), will be available no earlier than November 15, which forced the watchdog to decide on the second postponement.

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