Les
In a message dated 01-05-19 17:09:10 EDT, A. Fenelon wrote:
<< The government was simply too negligent and didn´t make
the needed investments to increase energy supply. So they started to use
excess of water from dam reservoirs to keep energy production (in Brazil
80% of power is generated by Hydroeletric plants). The volume of those
reservoirs in the Southeast region (the richer in the country) decreased
from 99% of total capacity in 1993 to 34% in 2000!!! To make things worse
the government started a privatizion program, so state owned power companies
didn´t make investments in new plants, since they were scheduled for
privatization. New private thermoeletric plants didn´t materialized, since
the real devaluation in 1999 decreased dramatically the revenues (in dollar)
from selling energy (it would be necessary a 120% increase in the prices
to the final consumer to keep pace with the dollar), so foreign companies
didn´t build new plants. Of the 49 new plants planned by the government,
only 15 were built (13 by the state owned oil company). From 1991 to 2001
the energy supply increased 3,3% an year while the demand increased by
4,1%. The IFM adjustement program also contibuted to the disaster, since
the government couldn´t make investments withe State owned enterprises
to fulfill the surplus targeted in agreements. There are the elements for
current disaster, >>