The Brazilian government plans to hold at least two auctions this year that would more than double transmission capacity between the wind-rich northeast and the industrial hubs in the south and southeast.

The aim is to boost inter-regional transmission capacity by 11GW by 2020, Moacir Carlos Bertol, planning vice-secretary at the Mines and Energy Ministry, tells Recharge.

The current 5GW transmission capacity between the northeastern and southern regions is increasingly seen as a limiting factor for the construction of new wind projects.

In addition, Bertol says, the government should hire consultants to determine the maximum amount of wind power that Brazil's 120,00km transmission grid could accommodate without disrupting the country's mostly hydro-thermoelectric power mix.

Wind currently accounts for 5% of Brazil's 137GW installed capacity and should grow to more than 11% by 2024.

The government is planning to tender a new link in the second half of this year between the northeast and the southeast, Bertol says, adding that the line will take 48 months to be built after contracts are signed.

In July, the government plans an auction of a second 800kV, 2,000km link between the 11.2GW Belo Monte hydro dam in northern Brazil to the southeast. It will take five years to complete. The first Belo Monte link was tendered in February 2014 and should be ready in 2018.

“The first one should increase transmission capacity between the regions by some 7GW, while the second line will raise it by another 4GW,” Bertol says. “This should allow expansion of generation, especially in wind.”

Brazil has mostly solved grid-connection problems of wind farms within the northeast, which kept almost 2GW of new wind idle in 2013 and 2014. However, there is an effective transmission limit of 5GW to the southeast – well short of what will be needed to transport power from 10GW of wind farms being built and planned in the region by 2019.

The northeast accounts for 70% of Brazil's 6.5GW wind capacity. According to the Brazilian Wind Power Association. ABEEólica, 3.2GW of wind is being built there, while 7.2GW has already been contracted at previous auctions.

This year, ABEEólica expects a further 3GW to be contracted, to come on line in 2017 and 2018.

Although tenders will guarantee expansion of the transmission capacity by 2019 and 2020, Recharge has learned that at least three state governments in the region are negotiating with federal authorities to speed up the tenders to avoid stalled construction of new wind and solar projects.