The National Director of Energy, Fitzgerald Cantero Pialihe stated in dialogue with scope.com that Uruguay It has a diversified and resilient energy matrix, with sources such as hydroelectric, wind, photovoltaic, biomass and thermal that allow it to face the effects of the historic drought. In this interview, he also announced that the country will host important international events on energies renewable next November.
– How is the concept of energy efficiency explained and how is it applied in Uruguay?
– The concept of energy efficiency is to be able to have the same level of comfort in your home spending less at the end of the month. This is obviously very important from the point of view of the pocket, but also of the environment and the energy system. Energy efficiency is one more source of energy such as hydraulics, biomass, solar or thermal. In other words, as careful as we can be with energy efficiency, we are making the system save the energy it is producing.
In Uruguay there is an energy efficiency law, where there are also a series of tools and measures installed that mean that this should be promoted. We have the legal mandate to promote it, to widen it and for more and more of the population to use energy efficiency tools. For this there is support from the economic and promotional point of view, and also from diagnostics, which is part of what we present in this activity where companies hire someone to diagnose them, to see the opportunities for improvement they have and good Part of the cost that companies have to make this diagnosis is covered by us.
Another part that is the efficiency certificates where I show what savings I had, and those savings are transformed into money that the company receives in order to amortize the investment made in the area more quickly.
– Has the impact that it had or the one that is expected to have been measured?
– Yes, that is permanently measured. Only for the concept of energy efficiency certificates 2022, the consumption saved by these measures is the equivalent to the consumption of the department of Treinta y Tres for a whole year. It is very important to dimension it like this to see what we are talking about, the importance of energy efficiency as another source of energy resources.
– If we talk about energy, we are in a complex moment regarding the issue of drought. How is the situation in Uruguay taking into account that there are various sources of energy today?
– We have a diversified matrix, product of that work that was carried out, and also we have a regional system that is resilient In other words, when one of the neighboring countries needs energy, we complement each other. We have a good part, today, of hydraulic generation, but we also have that import component on the side of Brazilwhich allows us to avoid turning on the hydrothermal at times. When there is a need, we do it, but aiming at what is the renewable network, the renewable matrix and in turn at complementarity with other countries, is important to try to avoid thermal backup. In this sense, obviously we do not have problems in terms of electricity generation and that has allowed us to cover the demand without any inconvenience regarding energy.
Let’s remember, last year, in 2022, Uruguay was covering Argentina, especially in winter, which had its needs, and in 2021 we were covering a good part of it in southern Brazil. Well, now it’s been a few months since we’ve been suffering more severely from this third year of consecutive drought and imports from Brazil are covering part, a small part of that demand.
– It is striking that the heating method most used by Uruguayans is still firewood, is there any explanation for that? Does it have to do with the market?
I don’t have the exact numbers to confirm that most of it is firewood. I think that there is also a very cultural component to this issue, this going, lighting the fire, is very Uruguayan. But there is also a component of heating with LPG, with the supergasand increasingly with air conditioners, which are much more efficient.
There is also now an incentive policy during this month for the acquisition of class A inverter air conditioning. Part of the process is also going to more efficient energy systems, such as electricity versus firewood.
– Uruguay will host international meetings on these issues. When are they?
– At the beginning of November of this year we are going to host two very important events. On one hand, the Investment Forum of the International Renewable Energy Agency, which brings together more than 160 countries around the world, and chose Uruguay to host what is the Investment Forum for all of Latin America. The objective is that investors, companies and countries can have a contact, an exchange for the generation of investments in renewable energies throughout the continent.
And in turn, we have also been designated by an important international organization for the energy week, which is a very important week that this organization holds every year. It is a great forum on the energy of the continent, of all Latin America and the Caribbean. We are going to be receiving authorities and companies from all over the continent, that is, we are going to be there once again in the spotlight. It is part of the relevance that Uruguay has had, I would say, throughout history, in what has to do with energy.
Source: Ambito
