Environmental licensing for transmission systems and electricity sector planning in Brazil

The electricity sector planning in Brazil aims to promote a reliable and safe supply of electricity to society. There are risks associated with planning out these projects in regard to environmental licensing (particularly with Transmission Systems). This paper presents a conceptual model for a solid analysis of the electricity sector by providing a regulatory and procedural assessment; it aims to connect issues with environmental licenses to those ventures. The results show that delays and uncertainties are related to the concession of energy transmission projects, which have not conducted any previous studies on the possible environmental impacts and have not applied the Environmental Impact Assessment as an instrument for decision-making. In order to minimize these uncertainties, studies on environmental planning should be conducted in the early stages of the project, prior to concession, as the venture is granted only once the projects have been demonstrated to be environmental viable.