The universal access to the public electricity service in Brazil was established by Law No. 10,438, of 04/26/2002. Until the beginning of the year 2020, access to electricity had been made available in all urban areas in the country, as well as in rural areas of the states of the South, Southeast, and in most states of the Northeast and Midwest regions, with the rural areas of the states of Bahia, Piauí, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and states of the North region remaining to conclude the public electricity service.
During those years, a portion of the population residing in remote regions of the country was identified, which for economic or environmental reasons would hardly be served by extension of conventional power distribution grid. They are small groups of consumers located in areas of difficult access, far from the existing power distribution grids.
Trying to minimize the difficulties experienced by families living in remote regions of the Legal Amazon, the federal government instituted, through Decree No.10.221, of 02/05/2020, the National Program for Universalization of Access and Use of Electrical Energy in the Legal Amazon –“More Light for the Amazon”.
The beneficiaries of the program are families of these regions who have not yet had access to the public electricity service or who have electricity generation from a non-renewable source.
The program's electricity services will be carried out through the generation of electric energy from clean and renewable sources and aim at the development of communities, mostly riverside, indigenous and quilombola communities. The arrival of electricity will reduce social and economic vulnerability, strengthening the exercise of citizenship, well-being and dignity for the life of this population.
These communities live mainly from fishing, flour production and the extraction of Brazil nuts and fruits from the Amazon Forest. With the program, they will be able to develop productive activities that can increase family income and, consequently, improve their quality of life.
The MLA program runs until 12/31/2022, with the possibility of an extension until the conclusion of universal access to electricity in the remote regions of the nine states which make up the Legal Amazon.
The financial resources required for the development of the program will come from the agents of the electricity sector, from the Energetic Development Account (Conta de Desenvolvimento Energético - CDE), a sectorial fund managed by the Chamber of Electric Energy Commercialization (Câmara de Comercialização de Energia Elétrica - CCEE), and from other sources to be regulated by the Ministry of Mines and Energy (Ministério de Minas e Energia -MME), together with other government agencies.
The operational structure of the MLA, its procedures and technical, financial and works prioritization criteria are defined by MME, through the Operation Manual of “More Light for the Amazon” Program, approved by MME Ordinance No. 244, of 06/16/2020. This manual is available on the “More Light for the Amazon” Program webpage maintained by MME.
