I am director of APTEL, www.aptel.com.br, a Brazilian utilities telecom association and also Chairman of International Division from UTC, www.utc.org, based in Washington, DC.

I think that your paper is good but it suffers from a general view far away from the region.

Smart Grids starts with Smart Meters and needs Smart Regulators. In South America (or LA) you have some countries that started strongly to deploy Smart Meters and others are working with small pilots. Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala and others, have more to show than Brazil.

But I think that this situation is changing. First of all the regulators are starting to understand that the subject is important. ANATEL – the telecom agency – is working on a regulation for BPL (interference) and certifies equipments. For now, indoor equipment is certified and ANATEL (with vendors and CPqD – local research institution) is testing the access equipment. But as you know, meters can communicate with a lot of different technologies and the bottleneck is not there.

The electric regulator – ANEEL – is a little bit behind and right now contracted a University (UFJF) to collect data about PLC and to write a regulation for its use and service. ANEEL is also looking at the Automatic Metering and will hold a specific Seminar in September 24-25, 2008. The problem here is not the technology but rather the tariffs. If the regulator will not allow some kind of relief for electric utilities to install new meters and proceed to AMI and AMM, the Smart Grid in Brazil will be delayed.

APTEL, acting as utilities association, signed a Agreement with Mackenzie University (in São Paulo) to develop guidelines for Brazilian Smart Grid. There are three Working Groups in activity: 1. Meters and User Interface, 2. Technology, 3. Regulatory and Business Issues. The results (reports) are expected at the end of 2008.

UTC and APTEL are also discussing a special Agreement to promote a SMART GRIDS Conference next March (possibly with participation of UTILIMETRICS) and, at that point, we expect to have advanced with APTEL-Mackenzie and also both regulators (ANATEL AND ANEEL).

Those are the plans of associations, universities, regulatory agencies and research institutions. In Brasil we have now at least three big utilities (Eletropaulo, Celg and Copel) working on extensive pilots with meters, that can be upgraded to full Smart Grid initiatives.

I think that the scenario is not the best but we have good chance to progress.

Dymitr