Brazil To Resume the Electrical Connection With Venezuela

Brazil's Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira said that his country is taking steps to resume connection with Venezuela's electrical grid to import energy from the Caribbean nation.

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The minister, who is in New York to present an energy transition project, explained that the reconnection with Venezuela, interrupted in 2019 by then president Jair Bolsonaro, is a project that seeks to provide energy security to the areas in northern Brazil.

"We have already begun to integrate with Venezuela. A decree was made to re-import clean and renewable electrical energy, the hydraulic energy from the Guri plant," Silveira said.

The interruption of energy imports from Venezuela affected the supply of energy to the state of Roraima, the only region of Brazil that is not yet connected to the national electrical system.

In May, Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro agreed to reconnect the electrical system between both countries.

The Bolivarian leader stated that investments of at least US$4 million would be necessary to recover the transmission lines, which have degraded due to lack of use.

Currently, Brazil is also working "on another front" to guarantee Roraima's energy security: the construction of a transmission line that will connect Roraima and Manaus.

In October, Silveira will inaugurate the first two towers of the transmission line that will connect Roraima for the first time with Brazil's national electrical system.