Our journey to CPFL

Today we visited CPFL, which stands for Companhia Paulista de Forca e Luz. They hold 57 operational plants (seen in the map) and 20 plants in construction. It is known to be Brazil's third largest electric utility, distributing electricity to 7.2 million customers in 569 municipalities in the states of São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and Minas Gerais. According to CPFL’s website, this business are considered to be the Brazilian leader in renewables which includes hydroelectricity, solar, wind and biomass, accounting for 13% of the Brazilian market.

I found CPFL to be very impressive, specially the Tanquinho solar power plant. It holds 5382 panels, some which move east or west according to the position of the sun. I have personally never had the chance to view a solar farm in person. I was also surprised to find out that their panels are not the most efficient, and it is a slow process for them to obtain new technology. I was also impressed to find out that over 90% of their portfolio is made up by clean energy.

Another interesting part of our trip today to Campinas was the control room. Each employee held 3 computers, and it is their job to control the transmission and distribution of energy. I was surprised to notice that the “Centro de Operacão do Sistema” did not have any windows, and it appeared to be operated 24 hours a day. 

As we were exploring the operation and structure of the utilities of CPFL, I noticed how our group perceived differently what was being showed to us according to our different backgrounds. As an example, when we took our first look at the electric car, engineers started asking questions about its function, while the first thing that came to my mind was how much it would cost to build the car. It was very interesting to listen to everyone’s perspective of the excursion due to our different majors and backgrounds.

I found the language barrier to be a challenge when trying to understand the information that was being provided by the employees. In addition to English not being my first language nor the tour guides, I am also not affluent in alternative energy technologies and I found it difficult to understand the complexities of the utility group, however, my peers we able to clarify my doubts.

One of the reasons why Brazil is considered to be an emerging market is because it is considered to be an energy- wise threat, so I consider myself very lucky to have had the once in a lifetime opportunity to explore the most important leader in renewable energy in Brazil.

I took pictures with my cellphone of my favorite parts of our journey, which can be found below. I look forward to future trips and learning more about the different alternative energy sources in Brazil.

Operational Plant

Solar Panels