Silveira says that “lobbies” won in Congress, commenting on the approval of MP 1,304

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, stated this Friday that the approval of Provisional Measure 1,304 in the National Congress, the day before, represented a victory for “lobbies” over the Brazilian public interest, when commenting on the country’s energy security challenges.

“The next challenge for Brazil’s energy security is to balance distributed generation. I hoped that Congress yesterday would have contributed to this, but unfortunately the lobbies won and the public interest did not win,” said Silveira, in reference to the MP’s vote that dealt with several energy issues.

In the Chamber’s plenary vote, the provision that created a charge of R$20.00 per 100 kilowatt-hours (kWh) on new distributed energy generation projects, a modality that encompasses small systems, generally from solar sources, installed on roofs, facades and land, was removed from the text.

The minister warned of the risk of “energy collapse” if urgent measures are not adopted to balance distributed generation in the country, especially with the advancement of micro and mini solar generation.

Silveira announced that the government will publish an ordinance later this year to facilitate Brazil’s first battery auction, scheduled for the first quarter of 2026.

“Without batteries, we are going to energy collapse. We are going to have excess generation… difficulties in operating the system, which cannot see the volume of distributed energy that is coming in”, he stated.

The auction will seek to contract storage capacity to ensure greater predictability and security for the electrical system, given the growing participation of intermittent renewable sources.

(By Rodrigo Viga Gaier)