The UK-based Carbon Trust has been recruited to provide ONS, the Brazilian National Electricity Operator, with best practice advice learnt from the 2012 London Olympics Games as Brazil prepares itself for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The Olympics are an unprecedented technical and logistical challenge for any host city, since the power grid gets tapped by huge sports venues, the world’s broadcasters, viewers and service providers all at the same time.
Analysis has found that the variation in power consumption during the Olympics could increase by as much as 6 gigawatts in less than 10 minutes – that’s the equivalent of six nuclear power stations, or twice the electricity demand of Rio de Janeiro.
The Carbon Trust will draw on the wealth of experience and knowledge gained when the UK successfully managed the power grid during the London 2012 Olympics and will share the learning with the Brazilian authorities.
The project will draw lessons from how the UK prepared its grid to provide dozens of sports venues, transport conduits, and broadcasting stations with high quality, reliable power, while responding to the hard-to-predict ‘overlay’ caused by non-sport activity, like busier restaurants and stronger household demand.
Operating and maintaining a complex grid during a prolonged period of heightened security also required special solutions in London that Rio 2016 is eager to learn from.
A delegation from Brazil’s ONS will visit London to get some hands-on exposure to London’s grid control and coordination centres, and the Carbon Trust will run capacity building workshops in Brazil to share its preparedness strategies with Brazilian technicians and planners. The project’s findings will also help ONS with the World Cup that Brazil will host in 2014.
Commenting on the project, James Rawlins, Associate Director at the Carbon Trust said: “We are delighted to be working with the Brazilian authorities to play our part in helping ensure the success of the World Cup and the Rio Olympics.
“This work builds on a number of other projects we are undertaking in Brazil as we share our unique experience with a growing number of countries around the world.”
Commenting on the project, Décio Nunes Teixeira Junior, Manager of Real Time Operation at ONS said: “Brazil’s National Electric System Operator – ONS – is very pleased to participate in this project as a means to ensure the opportunity to improve the operating experience of Brazil’s electricity system during major events, particularly the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the World Cup in 2014.
“We intend to utilize this legacy to maintain the highest degree of reliability and quality of Brazil’s power supply hereafter. We hope that this is only the first step in a long-term partnership with the UK and the Carbon Trust.” – nextgen
