MME replaces National Secretary for Energy Transition, Thiago Barral

(eixos.com.br) On Friday, the federal government dismissed the National Secretary for Energy Transition and Planning of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), Thiago Barral

The decision was published in an extra edition of the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU), signed by the Chief of Staff of the Civil House, Rui Costa, while the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira (PSD), was in France.
The position will now be filled by Gustavo Cerqueira Ataide, chief of staff of the president of the Energy Research Company (EPE), Thiago Prado.
Barral was responsible for planning energy auctions, including the auction aimed at contracting power, the LRCAP.

He was involved in the reformulation of the rules of the auction, which was canceled in March after being taken to court.

The model for the auction was beginning to take shape, after two months of discussions on how to arrive at a proposal that was less vulnerable to the courts.

The decision on the new format should soon be back on Silveira’s desk.

The main change being proposed is the separation of products, eliminating direct competition between natural gas-fired thermal plants and oil-fired plants with plans to convert to biofuels. The auction also provides for the contracting of hydroelectric plants.

The MME’s biggest challenge will now be to settle the debate on how to deal with the costs of using gas pipelines in the auction model.

In addition to the LRCAP, the MME was preparing to hold the first auction for the contracting of storage in the country this year, the main promise to launch the battery market in Brazil.

The schedule may be affected by the delay in the LRCAP.

The contracting of batteries is one of the promises to help alleviate generation cuts from renewable sources, the curtailment.
Before the dismissal… Barral defended the application of competitive mechanisms to deal with the connection of loads to the basic network of the National Interconnected System (SIN).