Itaipu plant, in Foz do Iguaçu (PR), closed 2022 with the historical mark of 100% Operational Efficiency, measured by the Operational Capacity Factor (FCO). In practice, this means that all the water received by the reservoir was used for power generation, without the need to open the spillway.
According to the manager of the System Operation Department (OPS.DT), Rodrigo Gonçalves Pimenta, this situation is rare because the Itaipu reservoir operates on a run-of-river model, in other words, it does not have a large water storage capacity. All the volume of water that reaches the dam needs to follow the flow of the river, either generating energy, through the generating units, or drained by the spillway.
“The FCO is established by the relationship between energy generated and available energy. In 2022 we were able to plan to meet the demands of the Brazilian and Paraguayan electrical systems, using all the water that was contributed to the reservoir, without the occurrence of spillage, resulting in a maximum use of our main input”, explains Pimenta.
Another important aspect of the balance concerns the maintenance of generating units. Forced Unavailability – when there is a need to stop a machine for unscheduled maintenance – was only 0.09%. This is the tenth consecutive year that the Technical Board meets the goal of keeping this number below 0.5%.
“It is the result of a job well done by the Operation and Maintenance teams, which allow the timely identification of failures to schedule stops and not affect production”, highlights the manager. The availability of the generating units was 97.25%, a very significant number, representing the third-best ever recorded by the company.
In terms of productivity, 2022 also had very positive numbers. Overcoming the largest water crisis since its operation, Itaipu achieved the second-best productivity result of the historical series, which represented a gain of 3.4 million MWh (approximately 5%) in production for the year.
In 2022, the plant generated 69,873,095 MWh, a percentage 5.28% higher than the production recorded in 2021. Just as a comparison, Itaipu’s production was equivalent to the sum of the two largest hydroelectric plants in Brazil, Tucuruí and Belo Monte (see table below). Itaipu’s production allowed it to reach, on December 27, the mark of 2.9 billion MWh generated since it came into activity, in May 1984. No other hydroelectric plant in the world has produced so much energy in its history.
In addition to being a major producer of clean and renewable energy, over the past year Itaipu and the entire block of hydroelectric plants stood out in another key role for the electricity sector: that of strategic reserve, contributing to the security of supply in the face of the intense expansion of intermittent renewable sources, such as solar and wind.
Itaipu
With 20 generating units and 14,000 MW of installed capacity, Itaipu Binacional is the world leader in the generation of clean and renewable energy, having produced, since 1984, 2.9 billion MWh. In the last 12 months, it accounted for 8.6% of Brazil’s electricity supply and 86.3% of Paraguay’s.
