Focus on Transmission and Distribution - the Potential of Energy Storage to Decongest Brazil's Power Grids

Bárbara Rubim currently heads Bright Strategies, a consulting firm advising renewable energy businesses on their legal and regulatory structure. In that capacity, she has helped develop more than 230 MW in energy projects in the last three years alone, and more than 2,200 people have completed her in-company training or her Masterclass on Regulation and Business Models in Distributed Generation. In her career in the energy sector, she has acted in public administration as a consultant to the Brazilian Congress, and has worked in the third sector as a coordinator of Greenpeace's Renewable Energy campaign in Brazil, and in the private sector. In addition, she also serves as the current Vice-President of the Managing Board of ABSOLAR (Brazilian Solar Photovoltaic Energy Association) and is the Director of Energy at FIESP's Infrastructure Department. Bárbara is a lawyer with an MBA in Finance and Business Strategies from the Federal University of Uberlândia. She specializes in the regulation of the electricity sector.

Thais Teixeira works as a Technical Consultant at EPE (Energy Research Office), where she coordinates regional interconnection planning studies, in the Transmission Department. Her fields of research and work include HVDC transmission systems, renewable energy integration and energy storage. Teixeira holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in electrical engineering, both from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and a postgraduate degree in project management from the Pontificial Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC-MG). Her most recent professional experience was coordinating the planning study that recommended a new HVDC system for the Brazilian electricity grid, which was published in 2023 by EPE. Her main previous research was related to energy storage, during her masters, which resulted in the publication of a scientific paper in na international journal. Her previous work experience includes the ONS (National System Operator) and a Project Consulting Company, where she worked with computational modeling for dynamic security assesment of power systems.

Electrical engineer, specialist in expansion planning and regulation of the electricity sector, executive MBA in electricity sector business from FGV, currently studying for a master's degree in energy planning at Coppe/UFRJ. Regulatory coordinator at Quantum Participações, the holding company responsible for the Brookfield group's energy transmission concessions. Manager of the technical-economic analysis project for the insertion of battery storage systems into the basic grid.

An Electrical Engineer with an emphasis on Power Systems, he graduated from the Federal University of Itajubá and specialized in Electric Power Systems at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. He has worked for 17 years at Companhia de Transmissão de Energia Elétrica Paulista - ISA CTEEP, currently in charge of the Expansion Planning and Studies area, He has experience in planning studies, sector regulation, project structuring and feasibility, R&D coordination and has led initiatives to implement new technologies in the transmission system under the company's concession, including the first large-scale battery project installed in the Brazilian transmission system at SE Registro in the state of São Paulo. He is also currently vice-coordinator of ABSOLAR's Storage WG and coordinator of ABRATE's Expansion Committee.