Rubens Brandt, CEO The dynamic holding company, with its subsidiaries Energia Consult, GenSolaris, and Energia Participações, dominates the nation’s power generation and transmission market. It works exclusively with intrepreneurs and banks to shape Brazil’s energy landscape.
“We are a reliable partner contributing to our clients’ and the industry’s growth and development,” says Rubens Brandt, CEO.
True to Brandt’s words, its 350-strong workforce performs over 75 percent of the market’s due diligence assessments monthly, covering a wide range of energy projects, including hydropower, solar, wind, thermal power plants, storage solutions, transmission lines and substations.
Its track record speaks for itself. Ninety-five percent of its revenue comes from renewable energy projects, including over 12GW of solar, 40GW of large and small hydro and 20GW of wind energy.
A Look into its Comprehensive Services
Grupo Energia’s services are vital throughout the entire lifecycle of a power plant or a transmission system. It excels in every phase, from new business development and initial design to construction and post-deployment management. This comprehensiveness assures clients each project is technically sound, optimally managed and environmentally compliant.
New business development is a crucial area, where entrepreneurs seek to capitalize on emerging market opportunities. Grupo Energia is an invaluable partner, conducting detailed market studies, specialized project analysis and location evaluations. Its feasibility assessments leave no stone unturned, scrutinizing technical, environmental, regulatory, legal and economic-financial factors to guide clients in making informed investment decisions.
“We thoroughly assess the issues in each project from a multidisciplinary perspective and present accurate solutions that generate results for each of our customer’s needs,” says Marcio Goulart, CCO.
Securing financing is frequently a make-or-break challenge, with lenders requiring technical due diligence and strict environmental requirements. Grupo Energia excels here, providing comprehensive reports to global financing agents, complete diagnoses of a project’s environmental impact and compliance with stringent standards like the Equator Principles based on IFC guidelines.
Once funding is secured, the design phase commences—a critical juncture where oversights can derail projects. Grupo Energia’s end-to-end involvement translates into basic and detailed design preparation. Respecting each country’s legal and regulatory criteria, it conducts watershed inventory studies and develops customized civil works and equipment solutions.
“We’ve developed over 60 basic and detailed designs, totaling almost 20GW of installed power, all prepared by a multidisciplinary team,” notes Goulart.
With design solidified, Grupo Energia’s role steps up as the Owner’s Engineer or as an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) agent. The complexities of managing consortiums, procuring materials, and executing work through turnkey contracts are daunting. Grupo Energia’s seasoned team, with experience across over a thousand projects, deftly handles these responsibilities, ensuring smooth execution and mitigating risks.
Grupo Energia is an infrastructure operator’s engineer through and through, going beyond consultancy to act as a strategic partner. It provides technical support for claims, cost and deadline management and ensures scope compliance, alleviating crucial pain points in project delivery.
“We have extensive knowledge of the market, but, above all, of our customers’ needs and how their businesses operate,” states Goulart. “We aren’t just a technical service provider; we’re invested partners presenting solutions tailored to each customer’s unique challenges.”
Honing over 20 years of expertise across energy generation, storage, distribution, mining safety and infrastructure projects, Grupo Energia has solidified its prominence. Its comprehensive service offerings equip developers and entrepreneurs with the resources and guidance to transform ambitious plans into realities despite the sector’s myriad complexities.
The company’s holistic approach is perfectly matched by its flexibility to address diverse client needs. Whatever the scope, it can provide ad hoc services aligning with specific requirements. This adaptability ensures a tailor-made experience, maximizing value for each client’s distinct circumstances.
Energizing Projects with People and Tech
For Grupo Energia, success in the energy sector depends on two key pillars—exceptional people and cutting-edge technology.
Each Project Is Analyzed Jointly By Experts From Different Backgrounds Capable Of Exploring Different Perspectives, Anticipating Possible Adversities And Offering Custom-Made Solutions
“Each project is analyzed jointly by experts from different backgrounds capable of exploring different perspectives, anticipating possible adversities and offering custom-made solutions,” adds Goulart.
Such technical expertise combined with solid investment in innovation makes Grupo Energia an excellent partner for engineering solutions for a wide range of projects. The company has developed a proprietary solution that combines drone imaging with AI to better monitor the progress of site works. This technology enables data-driven analysis and can be accessed by the client from any device. Grupo Energia’s technical team also analyzes the data to anticipate risks and develop tailored solutions that enable greater operational efficiency and cost reduction.
For instance, in a solar project, the system can evaluate the weekly installation of trackers, piles, torque tubes, cabling, inverters, PV modules based on drone imagery and AI analysis. This method reduces the number of personnel required on-site and enhances the precision of the data collected.
Implementing comprehensive document management streamlines the integration of factory test data, on-site quality control and schedule monitoring. All this information is consolidated on a platform that provides clients with a dashboard, enabling them to monitor project progress and make informed decisions quickly.
This holistic approach supports field activities, resource management and operational efficiency while significantly improving the accuracy of project analysis and independent due diligence reports.
“Investing in technology is the only way to stay alive and deliver high-quality services. Using top-notch technological tools, some of which need to be developed in-house, is essential. Otherwise, you will be left behind and forced to rely on low-income, non-specialized manpower, resulting in low-quality services. We are not falling for that,” says Brandt.
Despite its strong focus on technology, Grupo Energia never compromises on confidentiality. The company carefully selects its tools to meet stringent confidentiality requirements.
Such capabilities allow Grupo Energia to distinguish itself from competitors who focus less on cost reduction at the expense of service quality.
“We are not following this path. I’d rather lose market share than reduce quality because diminished quality would eventually harm our reputation,” states Goulart.
Real Power Result
A detailed look into Grupo Energia’s project portfolio reveals an impressive array of accomplishments that have shaped Brazil’s energy landscape over the past two decades. Since its inception, Grupo Energia has participated in a staggering 1,200 projects that encompass power generation, storage and transmission and distribution, totaling more than 180GW of installed capacity through diverse and sustainable sources.
It has spearheaded over 100 solar projects, contributing a substantial 32GW to Brazil’s renewable energy capacity. Among its most notable ventures is UFV Futura (Eneva), the third-largest solar project in Brazil, featuring 1.4 million solar panels and an impressive installed capacity of 859MWp. Other significant projects include Sol do Cerrado (Vale), which spans 1,280 hectares and has a generating capacity of 766MWp and Vista Alegre (Atlas), featuring over 1.5 million solar panels with a capacity of 900MWp.
Moving to the wind energy sector, its more than 30 wind farm clusters collectively provide over 20GW of installed power. Highlights include Santo Expedito (Eneva), with its 60 wind turbines, Novo Horizonte (PAE), with a generating capacity of 423MW, and Alto Sertão II (Renova), delivering a capacity of 384 MW of power.
The company has participated in more than fifty new and refurbishments of hydroelectric projects (HPPs and SHPs), resulting in 40GW of hydro power to Brazil’s grid. Prominent projects include lha Solteira HPP (CTG) with an impressive 3,444MW of installed power, São Manoel HPP (CTG / EDP) with 700MW and Jupiá HPP (CTG) with a capacity of 1,551MW.
Not to be outdone, 10GW of installed power through thermoelectric projects include Multiner Portfolio, with 3,753MW of power, the CELSE, which accumulates 1,590MW and Yungay & Aguaytia, delivering a combined 414MW.
Grupo Energia’s work in substations and transmission lines is electrifying. It has engaged with over 35 transmission projects, in addition to the restricted systems of the generation plants that resulted in more than 10GW in substations and transmission lines. Noteworthy projects include TL Lot A (Auction 013/2016), which spans over 1,200 km/500 kV for Argo Transmissora, TL Elenorte/Eteselva, which covers 476 km/220 kV and 267 km/138 kV for Argo Transmissora and the TL Connection of HPP S. Manoel, which includes a 40 km/500 kV executive project and implementation monitoring for EDP.
Watt’s Next
Grupo Energia pioneered the industry with its in-depth knowledge and investment in technical excellence. Today, Brazil is a world reference in renewable energy, and Grupo Energia displays over 1,000 renewable projects in its portfolio of services.
“Brazil, with its vast natural resources, provided the perfect launchpad for Grupo Energia. Today, we have six offices worldwide—four in Brazil - São Paulo, Brasília, Recife, Belo Horizonte- one in Lima, Peru and another in Sydney, Australia,” says Brandt.
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We Aren’t Just A Technical Service Provider; We’re Invested Partners Presenting Solutions Tailored To Each Customer’s Unique Challenges
Industry experts have recognized the company’s success, with Brandt being named one of ‘The 100 Most Influential People in 2021’ in the Energy Leaders category.
As Brazil generates 89 percent of its electricity from renewable sources (nearly triple the global average), Grupo Energia seeks to solve the challenges of securing favorable power purchase agreements. The mismatch between power generation and consumption creates difficulties in delivering energy when needed most.
To address this, Grupo Energia is exploring innovative solutions like green hydrogen, which can serve as a consumer of renewable energy and storage systems like batteries.
“We believe energy storage will be a major market in Brazil in the coming years. We are preparing for this shift and have already implemented some smaller energy storage systems to be ready for this market transformation,” explains Goulart.
With such a large track record and more underway, Grupo Energia is keen on innovation and collaboration with global startups. It invests in advanced software, satellite imagery, big data, AI and geotechnical radars to enhance service delivery without additional project costs.
As the future unfolds, it remains committed to maintaining a leading position in the market through ongoing investment in innovative solutions. This devotion is deeply ingrained in the company’s DNA, prompting the exploration of new technologies in energy storage, green hydrogen, mining asset safety, infrastructure projects and geotechnical and hydric resource surveys. These initiatives set the stage for Grupo Energia to continue shaping the energy industry’s future.
