Eletrobras Santo Antonio Power Plant bounces back after Brazil's historic drought

Santo Antonio is one of Brazil's biggest hydroelectric plants. Its head said that the plant had survived an extreme drought. He credited the plant's resilience with a series of measures which kept it running, even at record low water levels.

According to the Brazilian geological service, Santo Antonio on Amazon's Madeira River was forced to temporarily stop operations in 2023 due to drought, which lowered water levels to an all-time low of 1.1 meters (3.6 feet).

This year, however, despite an even worse drought that brought Madeira's levels of water to a record low of 0.19 meters.

Caio PompeuNeto, the president of Santo Antonio, said that "lessons were learned" (in 2023). He credited Santo Antonio’s performance to an array of new measures.

These include changing the way it transmits power to ensure that more electricity is shipped to states, like Acre and Rondonia where it is needed most, and creating an artificially raised water level system downstream.

"In front of one of our machines, there's a large stone." When we shut down all the turbines, and the spillways, water poured through this channel and hit the rocks, increasing the level of the reservoir downstream," Neto explained.

Santo Antonio (run by Latin America's biggest power company Eletrobras) was able, thanks to these measures, to generate 400 megawatts and run six of its fifty turbines at the height of the drought this year, between September and Oct.

The plant generates 2,000 MW from its total capacity of 3,568. He said that 29 of the 50 turbines were in operation.

The Madeira River is still below its historic average height of seven meters for this time of the year, at only 5.62 meters.

Neto stated that Santo Antonio would be able to take additional steps in the event of a second extreme drought. He noted the plant had been in discussions with the turbine suppliers regarding ways they could operate the turbines safely at lower water levels. Leticia Fucuchima reports from Sao Paulo. Writing by Andre Romani. Brendan O'Boyle, Mark Potter and Brendan O'Boyle edited the book.

(source: Reuters)