Brazil seeks to integrate South American power

Read the full article here.

Brazil is expanding its efforts to better integrate the power grids of South America to reduce emissions and increase regional energy security.

Its power grid already connects to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela, and it is now working to strengthen integration with Bolivia.

As a first step, Brazil's national energy policy council approved on 1 October an agreement to share with Bolivia the additional power generated by the 3,750MW Jirau hydroelectric plant, on the Madeira River in Rondonia state, roughly 300km (186 miles) from the Bolivian border. Under the agreement, the Jirau plant can raise the water level in the dam's reservoir to 90m above sea level during the entire dry season. This will allow the plant to generate up to an average of 236MW more electricity using the same infrastructure. Two-thirds of the additional power will be allocated to Brazil and one-third to Bolivia.

Source: Wikipedia/Greg Watson