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PROJECT PROFILE: Utilities Technology Council (UTC, 2013 award)
With a population of just under 200 million, Brazil has about 70 million electric power consumers. But the infrastructure that its 63 independent utilities relies upon needs upgrading. image: UTC
Brazil Needs to Upgrade Its Grid, But Where to Start?
Brazil is ranked eighth in the world for electrical power generation. While the country benefits from significant renewable resources-- almost a third of that comes from hydro-electric generation sites like dams—Brazil struggles to keep up with growing demand for electricity.
MDCP Award/UTC Match: $299,531/$663,486
Markets Targeted: Brazil
U.S. Industry Promoted: Electric power delivery
Period: 2013-2017
Key ITA Collaborators:
- Victoria Gunderson, Industry & Analysis, Office of Energy & Environmental Industries
- Shannon Fraser, San Jose, California USEAC
- Igly Serafim, Commercial Service, Sao Paulo
Project Description:
- Based on a survey of Brazilian utilities & stakeholders, develop & distribute a Utility Modernization Advisor (UMA).
- Build demand for U.S. products & services through technical seminars, reverse missions, and sharing the UMA tool.
Projected exports generated by 2017: $28,000,000
Exports generated by 2017.09.30: $6,000,000
Exports per dollar of award: $20
Like utilities in the United States, utilities in Brazil encourage their consumers to conserve electricity. This allows a utility to avoid spending to build expensive new power-generation capacity. But Brazil has challenges that are not common in North America. For example, Brazil has a high incidence of “non-technical losses”. In effect, this is mostly due to theft of service. Conservation outreach to customers will not reduce this drain on Brazil’s utilities. So, while generation and conservation may be part of the mix, Brazil needs to focus on metering and distribution.
Using UTC's Utility Modernization Advisor (UMA), a Brazilian utility can identify and justify a vision for changes it seeks, develop procurement processes likely to result in good solutions at a reasonable cost, create schedules, and implement and manage projects. Creating UMA for the Brazil market is at the core of UTC's strategy for the MDCP project.
Familiarization with Technology Builds Demand
Getting Brazilian utilities to use UMA is not enough. UTC has participated in several technical conferences in Brazil to raise awareness of utilities of the latest technologies and services that could transform an electrical distribution system from one easy to cheat, to one too smart to beat. Here, UTC was able to reach 13 times as many Brazilian utitlities and power-oriented companies as it had projected when it started the MDCP project. Brazilian utilities are interested in what UTC has to offer. The technical webinars proved to be very popular, with well over 1000 Brazilian firms participating.
On at least three different occasions during the MDCP project, UTC also helped Brazilian officials to see potential U.S.-developed solutions by connecting them to firms and organizations in the United States that had solutions to meet their challenges. Fortunately, UTC did not have to do all the "heavy lifting" in bringing Brazilian delegations. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) made resources available to bring Brazilian utilities officials and regulators to the United States.
Seeing U.S. technology and services tends to increase the likelihood that they will be the solution that potential customers will purchase. This has been an efficient way to leverage both USTDA and ITA resources to make export success by U.S. firms in Brazil more likely.
IT13INA1120007 -- SF case 91130
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The Utilities Technology Council (UTC) is a global trade association serving critical infrastructure providers. UTC was founded in 1948, to advocate for the allocation of additional radio spectrum for power utilities. Over the last 65 years, UTC has evolved into an industry organization that represents electric, gas, and water utilities, as well as natural gas pipelines, critical infrastructure companies and other industry stakeholders.
UTC contact: Steve Vick, Brett Kilbourne
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