Debate on economic situation wraps up Energy Traders Group’s activities in 2019

The Rio de Janeiro Energy Traders Group, coordinated by FGV Energy and made up of energy trading companies based in the city, met four times in 2019. The last of these meetings took place on December 9, in FGV’s main building.

“Rio de Janeiro is home to many important electricity sector players: traders, generators, distributors, consultants and consumers, not to mention the National System Operator and the government’s Energy Research Company (EPE). FGV’s meetings encourage these players in Rio to work together, facilitating business deals between them,” said Cristian Nogueira, the CEO of Energisa Comercializadora, the power trading arm of Energisa.

During the meeting, researchers Samuel Pessoa and Silvia Matos of the FGV Brazilian Institute of Economics (FGV IBRE) gave a presentation on prospects for the Brazilian economy. They then led discussions featuring representatives of the companies that are members of the Rio de Janeiro Energy Traders Group: Brookfield, Celer, Diferencial, Enel, Energisa, Eneva, Furnas, Hydro, Light, Neoenergia, Petrobras, Positiva, Rio Energy, Solenergias, Statkraft, Ternium and Voltalia.

“These meetings are very productive and the possibility of direct interaction with speakers in a roundtable discussion is a major advantage in relation to other power sector events,” said Mônica Kronemberger, an energy trading specialist at Rio Energy.

In addition to this end-of-year event, this integration was fostered at three other meetings. At the first one, in April, Ricardo Lisboa, the chairman of the Brazilian Association of Energy Traders (ABRACEEL), talked about improvements to energy sales aimed at enhancing operational safety.

In September, there was a roundtable discussion featuring Alessandra Amaral, the chief energy and trading officer at Light, Carolina Szczerbacki, the trading leader at Rio Energy, and Kátia Monnerat, the trading leader at Voltalia. They debated the urgent need for renewable energy projects in the unregulated electricity market. The moderator was Paulo Cunha, a consultant at FGV Energia.

At the November meeting, the Rio de Janeiro Energy Traders Group met at Voltalia’s head office to discuss proposals to unbundle capacity and power products in the new market model, which the Mining and Energy Ministry’s Power Sector Modernization Group has been discussing. During this meeting, Erik Rego, EPE’s electricity research director, presented his company’s vision and debated this topic’s prospects and repercussions with the other participants.

“Our meetings in 2019 were very fruitful, allowing us to network and to debate important subjects related to the Brazilian power system,” said Solenergias director Antônio Pinhel.