00:00Good afternoon again everyone. As a global leader in transmission and grid
00:04technologies, Hitachi Energy has played a key role in Brazil's energy transition.
00:10Joining me on stage is Glauco Freitas, Country Managing Director for Hitachi
00:13Energy Brazil. Glauco, wonderful to have you here. Thank you, thank you for that.
00:18Of course, a pleasure. So Brazil is a pioneer in renewable energy, right? But
00:23there's still a lot of important bottlenecks. What are they and how
00:26urgent is the situation right now? Great question. Hey, hi everyone. Let me just
00:33say a bit about Hitachi Energy. Hitachi Energy is the energy division of Hitachi
00:40Group, which is one of the five biggest Japanese companies and also a global
00:47leader in power grids, which means that we have the biggest installed
00:53base for transmission equipment and solutions in Brazil and globally speaking.
00:58Let me contextualize what is happening in Brazil first. We took like 120 years to be
01:09able to produce 175 gigawatts of energy in 2020. Now we are producing 240 more or less. So we
01:22we grew like 35% in the last five years. So Brazil is a reference. Brazil is a benchmark for the rest of the world.
01:32We are producing now more than 90% of the energy through renewable sources in the country and the
01:40average global average is around 28%, which is great. This is one of the beautiful Brazil's. And we also
01:48have one of the most interconnected transmission systems around the world, with 100% of the states already
01:59connected. This happened just in September this year with the interconnection of Roraima and the grid.
02:06So this is one of the beauties of this country. We have come so far, this far. What is next? Are we ready for what is coming?
02:20What should we do? And this is the point. Brazil, I heard that from Senator Jampo Prats last week. We should not talk about energy transition, but about energy evolution in Brazil.
02:36Brazil. We have already the generation. We have the demand and all the possibilities of demand. We just need to make it ready. The way must
02:50be ready. The road must be ready. And what I mean, we need to have a better management system because the behavior of the consumption
03:00consumption is different is different for a data center with a lot of peaks and valleys. We need to connect the production center in southeast of Brazil to the consumption center in southeast and south of the country.
03:17We need to be prepared to work with a matrix with more than 30% of the load coming from intermittent sources, which is wind and solar power plants. We are not ready for doing that right now. And that's what we should highlight.
03:37There is no transition without transmission. Modernization is key right now for the system to secure the opportunities we have ahead.
03:48That's fantastic. And as you know, I think transmission is essential, right? And Hitachi Energy is putting a lot of money towards that.
03:56Tell me a little bit about these investments and how the company is applying its global expertise, which Hitachi has, but in Brazil.
04:04Great. We are based in Brazil since 54, for seven to one years in Guarulhos, close to the airport. And as I said in the beginning, we have the biggest installed base in Brazil, just to give you the right proportion of the size of the company.
04:27The company decided, the group decided to invest $6 billion from 24 to 27 in the increase of production, resources, training, R&D, innovation and digital.
04:431.5 billion out of those 6 billion will be dedicated to increase the production of power transformers, which is one of the bottlenecks of the grid.
04:56$200 million out of this 1.5 billion will be addressed to Brazil to improve the capacity, our capacity, local capacity.
05:06And Brazil, just to highlight, Brazil is one of the top five facilities we have in the world.
05:13So we are big. Five out of 200 facilities.
05:18And we are now expanding the production in Guarulhos by 40% by the middle of next year.
05:27We are now under a lot of projects in the site.
05:32And by doing that, we could increase the production by 40, 50% depending on the mix of the products.
05:39And also a greenfield investment in Pindamoyangaba, announced in August this year.
05:48And with this investment, this new facility, we will be able to double our production for the country.
05:56So it's all about anticipation.
05:58We are anticipating the needs of the country, the needs of the world.
06:02Because from this place, we can support the local market, but also the exports from Brazil.
06:11Exporting final equipment technology, not commodities, which is fantastic, right?
06:18And I think that really transitions really well into my next question,
06:21which is we all know that global energy demand is growing extremely quickly now.
06:26How are you thinking about what is driving this demand and the potential risks that are associated with that?
06:33There is a dramatic surge of electricity consumption in the world with an unprecedented scale and pace.
06:44It's amazing what is happening.
06:46And this is driven by the heating and cooling industries,
06:53the electrification of industries at all, e-mobility, data center, mainly the ones used to process AI.
07:04And in Brazil also, there is a lot of investments in the country to replace obsolete equipment and so.
07:18We have this unprecedented surge of electricity consumption.
07:23And this is the magic, how to balance this increase and decarbonize the system.
07:29What I can say is that we don't have just a window of opportunity with all of those industries.
07:37We have a platform of transformation.
07:40This could transform the country.
07:43The decisions that we take right now will last for decades, maybe centuries.
07:49We should be ready to take the right decisions right now and not lose this platform of transformation.
07:59Again, data center, green hydrogen, offshore wind, electrification industries, e-mobility and so.
08:09Yeah, absolutely.
08:10Well, with all the interviews that I did here today, I touched upon COP.
08:14Because that's the reason that we're all here in Brazil over the next couple of weeks.
08:18So, this COP is really focused in action.
08:21What concrete actions is Hitachi Energy pushing?
08:24And what do you want to ultimately see come out of this COP?
08:28We are completely aligned with the objective of this COP, which is, according to the presidents of the COP30,
08:39secure energy, adjust, significant and meaningful energy transition.
08:47So, we are completely aligned to that because this is our mission, to secure that transmission and the technology would not be a bottleneck for the transition.
09:00And this is also the COP for action, as you said.
09:03Yeah.
09:04And we are already acting to, as improving the capacity, not just in Brazil, but around the world.
09:12And, but the electricity, the modern grids, which is what we are looking for, which is what we are fighting for,
09:25modern grids is also something that can improve communities and industries.
09:32And this is the beauty of the thing.
09:35Modern grids can improve the access, can reduce the emissions, can improve the quality of, the life quality of people,
09:46can boost communities, as I said, can also improve the resilience to the climate changes.
09:55And there is a data from ONU, from the United Nations, that accounts that modern grids can improve the GDP by 545 trillion dollars until 2050,
10:14besides saving a lot of lives.
10:18Well, we're unfortunately out of time, but I wanted to thank, first of all, Hitachi Energy for being such a great partner to Brazil.
10:24And everything that you guys are doing here.
10:26Thank you, Glauco, and thank you, Hitachi, for supporting today's event.
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