01/10/2023 – 15:22
Loved by many, hated by many others, daylight saving time was for a long time a reason for discussion and controversy among Brazilians. Many people liked to take advantage of the hottest period of the year and enjoy the longer evening to play sports or have a happy hour with friends. But those who wake up early to work complained about darker mornings, with the clock moving forward by 1 hour.
Preferences aside, there were technical reasons for the government to determine the adoption of the measure, which was in force in the country every year from 1985 until 2018. In 2019, the measure was extinguished by then-president Jair Bolsonaro and, this year, despite the change of government, there are no signs that daylight saving time can be adopted again.
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Both the technical area of the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the minister himself have already said that, for now, there is no need to set the clocks forward this year, mainly because of the country’s current good energy supply conditions. The ministry says that the safe planning implemented since the first months of the government guarantees this condition.
Minister Alexandre Silveira also says that there are no signs that it will be necessary to adopt daylight saving time this year, because the reservoirs of hydroelectric plants are in the best water storage conditions in recent years. “Summer time will only happen if there are signs and evidence of a need for security of supply in the Brazilian electricity sector. For now, there is no sign in this regard. We have the best reservoirs in the last 10 years.”
According to the National Electric System Operator (ONS), Stored Energy (EAR) levels in reservoirs should remain above 70% in September in most regions, which represents stability in the system. To give you an idea, in September 2018, for example, in the last year of implementation of daylight saving time, the EAR of the reservoirs in the Southeast/Central-West subsystem, one of the most important in the country, was at 24.5%. This year, this percentage is 73.1%.
Another factor that serves as an argument for not resuming summer time in Brazil is the increase in the supply of electricity in recent years, with greater use of wind and solar plants. “The energy sector, which was the one who gave the order, is not seeing the need to give this order, is not seeing great gains with the measure”, says Professor of Energy Planning Marcos Freitas, from the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Postgraduate Institute and Engineering Research at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Coppe/UFRJ).
Change of habit
When it was created in 1931, the clock was advanced by 1 hour between the months of October and February with the aim of making better use of natural light and reducing the concentration of consumption during peak hours, which were between 6pm and 8pm. However, in recent years, there have been changes in Brazilians’ energy consumption patterns and peak hours, with greater use of electricity in the afternoon, mainly due to the intensification of the use of air conditioning devices.
Furthermore, lighting, which previously represented a significant part of consumption, especially during peak hours, is no longer so important from an electrical point of view. Until the beginning of the 2000s, the use of incandescent lamps in homes, businesses and public lighting was common. After the 2001 energy crisis, energy efficiency policies were adopted, with an increase in the use of more economical lamps, such as fluorescent lamps, and more efficient household appliances.
“Today, the lighting factor is no longer an important factor for the electrical sector, as it was in the past, when around a third of a home’s energy consumption came from lighting. Today, the big villain in homes is called air conditioning”, highlights Professor Freitas.
For him, the adoption of Summer Time this year would be more a matter of population habit than the need of the electricity sector. “I personally really like Summer Time, I like coming home in daylight, I think the idea is nice. But I know there are limitations, workers who wake up very early suffer a lot from this schedule.”
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