- Conserve energy, Brazilian government pleads with consumers
- Lingering drought has impacted electricity generation
- Rising temperatures prompts an increase in electricity demand
Consumers in Brazil have been asked to conserve energy due to the prolonged drought in the country. Brazil is currently facing its worst drought in almost one hundred years, prompting a drastic drop in electricity generated while rising temperatures have resulted in an increase in electricity demand. As a result, the government hopes to decrease electricity consumption in the country by 10% to avoid power cuts and load shedding.
The Brazilian government on Thursday called on electricity consumers to conserve energy. President Bolsonaro, in a new decree issued this week, has also outlined measures to reduce consumption by federal agencies. ”The bodies and entities shall seek to reduce electricity consumption in the months of September 2021 to April 2022 in a percentage of ten to twenty percent in relation to the average consumption of the same month in the years 2018 and 2019,” the decree stated.
Electric Energy Secretary Christiano Vieira said, ”The idea of the program is to reward consumers who make an effort to reduce the load and contribute to increasing safety and reducing the cost of generation,”