Eletrosul: lightning strikes costs US$167mn a year

Lightning strikes cost Brazilian power companies some 500mn reais (today US$167mn) a year, according to state power transmission company Eletrosul, which is hosting a two-day seminar to discuss solutions. Some 70 million lightning strikes are registered in Brazil every year, equivalent to an average of one every three seconds, Eletrosul said. About 70% of the strikes happen between October and March, and the areas most affected are the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul and the center west state of Mato Grosso. Eletrosul heads up the 8mn reais Siddem Project, backed by another six distributors, which is building a network of sensors across Brazil to monitor weather conditions and detect build-ups of storms and atmospheric electricity. The six partners are AES Sul, CEEE, Celesc, Enersul, RGE and Tractebel Energia, which make up the bulk of the distributors using Eletrosul's transmission grid. Siddem has hired Finland's Vaisala to locate and install 15 sensors across southern and western Brazil to detect these build-ups.