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Arquivo FURNAS
Innovation and success hand in hand
As we will see in the following pages, the construction of the
Furnas Hydroelectric Power Plant was the first step in a 63-
year history. This history consolidated FURNAS company as
one of the most important in power generation in Brazil. In the second
half of the 1950s, with the Brazilian industrial park continually growing
and the lack of sufficient electric power to maintain this pace, the construction
of Furnas Power Plant became an extreme urgent solution. It
was a monumental challenge: to build what it would be, until then, one
of the largest hydroelectric in the world and that would name the company.
If, by the grace of fate, it had stopped there, it would be something
memorable, a fact that marked the epoch in the electricity industry in
Brazil. However, it went much further.
Currently, Furnas has a generating park that has more than 18,000
megawatts (MW), in 21 hydroelectrics and two thermoelectrics (being
12,000 MW in units operated and maintained by the company itself),
and also wind farms. The Furnas' transmission lines are spread over approximately
28 thousand km in the national territory, ensuring the interconnection
of subsystems of the Brazilian electric sector. The company
is also present in about 80 substations. Created in 1957, Furnas is a mixed
economy company, a subsidiary of Eletrobras and linked to the Ministry
of Mines and Energy. It operates and maintains a system through which
40% of the energy that drives Brazil passes. It is currently present in the
generation, transmission and sale of electric power, with facilities in regions
covered by Distrito Federal and the states of São Paulo, Minas
Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Espirito Santo, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Pará,
Tocantins, Rondônia, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do
Norte, Ceará and Bahia.
In partnership with state and private companies, Furnas participates
in generation and transmission enterprises of fundamental importance
to guarantee the increase of electric power supply in Brazil. The monumental
construction of its first hydroelectric power plant adds up to a
paradigm: innovation is part of the history and culture of Furnas. During
these more than 60 years, whenever a large energy enterprise required
investment capacity, planning and technological innovation, Furnas was
present to increase the supply and distribution of electric power. In the
1970s, it implemented extra-high voltage alternating current and direct
current circuits in order to transmit the energy generated by the gigantic
Itaipu Power Plant. The company also stands out for its performance in
the implementation of nuclear power plants Almirante Álvaro Alberto
Nuclear Power Plant (in Angra dos Reis, RJ), the Santo Antônio Hydroelectric
Power Plant (RO) and the major transmission lines of Belo Monte
and Madeira. Furnas then became a reference in the Brazilian electric
sector and one of the companies that invests the most in new technologies,
in continuous and sustainable growth.
DO RIO GRANDE A BARRAGEM DE FURNAS 7