Daylight savings was 162 million R$, says ONS

Brasilia-the National Electric System Operator (ONS) announced today (19) that the country saved R$ 162 million during this year''s summer schedule, which ends next Sunday (21).
The economy was possible because, with time, we didn''t need to add more energy to thermal power plants to ensure the country''s supply at peak hours.
The ONS''s initial expectation, at the beginning of daylight saving time, it was a R$ 240 million savings due to the reduction of thermal generation. The operator has not yet explained why the goal was not reached.
Demand reduction is equivalent to an energy reduction of 0.5% in the South, Southeast and Midwest, where daylight saving time was implemented.
According to the ONS, the continued application of summer time represents a cost avoided investment in electric system of R$ 7.7 billion, which would be needed if the measure were adopted.
In 126 days in the differentiated timetable ran, there was a reduction in demand in the peak hours of consumption of 2,598 megawatts (MW), 1,950 MW in the Southeast/Midwest subsystem, and 648 MW in Southern subsystem.
This reduction represents approximately 4.5% of the demand from end of two subsystems.
In the case of the Southeast/Midwest subsystem, the reduction is equivalent to one and a half times the load on the tip schedule. In the South, represents twice the load on the tip schedule of Florianópolis.
"The main benefit of daylight saving time is the increase of operational security, resulting from the reduction of loadings in transmission network, providing greater operational flexibility to perform maintenance on equipment," said the ONS.