Handling transmission congestion in the Brazilian electricity system

The new shape of electricity systems as seen in many countries has as its main objectives - an increase in competitiveness between generation suppliers and retailers, and at the same time, the maintaining of transmission and distribution functions as a regulated monopoly. This decision has as a consequence the unbundling of their functions and resulted in the need for determining the price for each one. This work addresses new institutional environment issues such as transmission planning and costs recovery. The manner in which transmission congestion and transmission charges are handled by the Brazilian electricity sector is also discussed.