Cepel continuously seeks strategic partnerships to expand its capacity for accomplishment and its portfolio of customers and solutions. To achieve this goal, in 2022, it carried out visits to other research centers (Lactec, SENAI CIMATEC, SENAI-SP, CPqD and Eldorado) and to associates and users of their services and solutions (Eletronorte, CGT Eletrosul, Chesf, IsaCTEEP and Cemig), among others. Amid the partnerships signed by the Center, the following stand out:

SPIC Brazil and Cepel – Green Hydrogen and Ammonia

SPIC (State Power Investment Corporation) BraSil, one of the largest private energy generators in the country, has partnered with Cepel to start projects aimed at the production of green hydrogen (H2V) and green ammonia (HN3V). Among other objectives, this initiative aims to evaluate the economic factor of solutions for real applications in different conditions and scales, since H2V is considered an important energy vector for the decarbonization and integration of various sectors, especially those of industry and mobility.

Google Cloud

One of the highlights of 2022 was the agreement signed with Google Cloud for developing products and use of cloud solutions, associated with artificial intelligence, data and HPC (high performance computing), as well as the future commercialization of Cepel products in the Google marketplace. Another result of the partnership is the training, in which more than 30 Cepel researchers have already been trained in topics such as Infrastructure Modernization, Serverless, Containers, CI/CD and Machine Learning.

Brazilian Committee of the World Energy Council (WEC)

Cepel joined the Brazilian Committee of the World Energy Council, a move fully aligned with the Center’s performance as a developer of innovative technological solutions that contribute to the energy transition, a theme highlighted in the WEC - World Energy Council agenda.

Cooperation with Chesf for the development of heliothermic plants

Since 2020, Cepel and Chesf have been carrying out, under a Technical Cooperation Agreement, a partnership in the development of heliothermic power plants with the Petrolina Solar Energy Reference Center (Cresp). The main activity planned is the implementation of a 0.8 MW heliothermic plant based on parabolic cylinder technology. The complete technical specification of the plant has been revised to allow the hiring of an EPC company to build the plant.

At the end of 2022, Chesf requested the inclusion of two new themes in the Cooperation Agreement: the installation of a green hydrogen production plant by electrolysis; and the monitoring of the operational performance of the Base Plant and the Sobradinho Floating Power Plant, including the analysis of the quality of the electric energy and monitoring of transient overvoltages of the Base Plant, already existing in Cresp.

The Cooperation Agreement between Cepel and Chesf also covers the possibility of other joint research and development activities at Cresp.

Cepel and Itaipu Technology Park

The institutional cooperation agreement between Cepel and the Itaipu Technology Park in Paraguay (PTIPY) was signed in early October 2022 and will be valid for three years. The central objective of the agreement establishes a framework of actions that will provide technical, academic, and technological cooperation with the purpose of generating scientific, social and environmental innovations between the institutions.

Smart Grids Laboratory

In line with the transformations necessary for the energy transition, the Smart Grids Laboratory—which has unique characteristics and capacity for power levels between 20 kVA and 300 Kva—located at the Adrianópolis unit, is the result of a partnership with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Petrobras and Eletrobras.

The laboratory has the capacity to simulate the behavior of a power grid to verify the requisites required for a distributed source to be inserted into the system, such as protection system, adjustment and frequency system and load interaction system, in order to verify whether the equipment can bring unwanted impact or not to the network and develop solutions to mitigate any impacts.

Participation in C4IR and industry forums

Linked to the World Economic Forum, C4IR promotes technologies for the fourth industrial revolution in all countries, from the monitoring and acquisition of data, artificial intelligence to the analysis of this data and the proper diagnosis of the condition. Eletrobras is the founder of C4IR in Brazil, with a focus on promoting the application of these technologies in the country’s electricity sector, which are being put into practice through the Soma TR project with Cepel. These are industry 4.0 technologies that are being executed in the transmission throughout Eletrobras.

Cepel is also inserted in forums of technological debate, such as the International Council of Large Electrical Networks - CIGRE and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers - IEEE, where the main challenges, needs and trends of the electric energy sector are discussed.