Patria Investimentos enters free powermarket
March 22, 2024
Executives from Tria Energia, Pátria’s new business — Photo: Disclosure
Pátria Investimentos, a Brazilian asset manager with interests in power generation and transmission, is now joining commercialization. The company, which expects a larger volume of deals this year, has partnered with executives in the segment to create Tria Energia and focus on short-term trading, credit operations, and risk management.
Executives Daniel Lima, Thiago Natacci, Rodrigo Pelizzon, and Heloy Rudge are joining Pátria—Tria’s main shareholder—after a stint in Targus Energia, a commercialization company acquired by Vibra in 2021. Initially, the new company will negotiate contracts directly but does not rule out engaging in activities such as transactions on BBCE, a bilateral power trading platform, and even on exchanges like the newly created N5X.
Trading involves energy contracts that change hands like a commodity. The trader’s role is to provide liquidity for contracts, offering products such as spot contracts. They also engage in risk management, profiting from price fluctuations—in the electricity sector, the reference is the price of settlement of differences (PLD).
Data from the Electric Energy Trading Chamber (CCEE) indicate that in January, the contract liquidity index was 4.17 times. In other words, energy contracts changed hands more than four times before financial settlement.
Patria’s entry into the segment came in a year when the electricity sector saw another obstacle fall for energy migration in the free market, where consumers can choose their electricity supplier and supply conditions. For Pátria, the creation of Tria is strategic in expanding the asset manager’s operations in the electricity sector, according to Frederico Sarmento, director of infrastructure and energy at Pátria Investimentos.
The free market represented 37% of total energy consumption in 2023. The new company starts with an investment of R$120 million from Pátria and its partners. The trader will negotiate contracts for conventional energy (hydro and thermal, for example) and incentivized energy (wind and solar)—renewable sources that still benefit from subsidies for implementation, reflecting different price and term conditions compared to “traditional” plants.
Despite the focus on trading, Tria will also negotiate medium and long-term contracts, spanning over a year. “It became clear that commercialization will be synergistic with Pátria’s ecosystem,” said Mr. Sarmento.
“We will trade conventional and incentivized energy in all submarkets, for end consumers, generation companies, and other traders,” said Thiago Natacci, co-founder of Tria Energia.
Pátria Investimentos has been active in the power sector for 18 years. It’s a partner of Shell and Mitsubishi in the gas-fired Marlim Azul power plant, located in Macaé (Rio de Janeiro), in hydroelectric, wind, and solar generation projects, as well as in transmission assets. Pátria’s investments in the period totaled $17 billion, with combined assets under management totaling $31.8 billion.
Link: https://valorinternational.globo.com/business/news/2024/03/21/patria-investimentos-enters-free-power-market.ghtml