Eneva and GE Vernova begin commercial operations at 295 MW Azulão I gas power plant in Brazil’s Amazonas state

On August 19, 2026, Eneva and GE Vernova flipped the switch on the Azulão I thermal power plant in Silves, Amazonas—about 205 miles from Manaus. The gas-fired facility is contracted to deliver 295 MW of firm, dispatchable capacity to Brazil’s National Interconnected System for the next 15 years.

That launch completes the first phase of Eneva’s broader Azulão gas power complex, sitting deep in one of the country’s most logistically punishing regions.

Plant begins supplying power to Brazil’s national grid

Azulão I is the first of two plants planned for the complex. The second, Azulão II, is scheduled to reach commercial operation in July 2027. Once both units are running, the complex is expected to put out a combined 950 MW—enough, according to the companies, to power around four million Brazilian homes.

The concept is straightforward: generate electricity right at the source of natural gas production instead of hauling fuel long distances to a separate facility.

The 15-year supply contract with Brazil’s National Interconnected System (SIN) gives the project long-term revenue certainty. For Eneva, it also confirms a strategy built around developing generation capacity in remote areas where infrastructure is thin and grid access is genuinely hard to come by.

GE Vernova’s H-Class turbine and Eneva’s Reservoir-to-Wire model underpin the project

At the core of Azulão I is GE Vernova’s 7HA.02 gas turbine, paired with an H65 generator. The 7HA.02 belongs to GE Vernova’s H-Class lineup, built for high-efficiency, grid-balancing work—especially in systems where variable renewables are growing fast.

Eneva built the project around its “Reservoir-to-Wire” (R2W) model. The concept is straightforward: generate electricity right at the source of natural gas production instead of hauling fuel long distances to a separate facility. In a place like Amazonas, cutting that infrastructure complexity isn’t just convenient—it’s essential.

GE Vernova also locked in a 15-year service agreement covering ongoing maintenance and operational support. The company has been operating in Brazil for over 100 years, employs roughly 5,000 people locally, and its technology contributes to generating about 40% of Brazil’s total electricity.

Custom engineering overcomes one of the world’s most challenging transmission corridors

Hooking a remote plant up to the national grid is never simple. Azulão I feeds into the Tucuruí-Macapá-Manaus high-voltage transmission corridor—a roughly 1,150-mile stretch that ranks among the world’s longest and most technically demanding.

Long transmission lines create specific electrical stability risks. One of the more serious is Sub Synchronous Resonance (SSR), a phenomenon where oscillations between a generator and the transmission system can damage equipment or destabilize the grid.

To deal with it, Eneva and GE Vernova developed a custom SSR blocking filter paired with a torsional stress relay—designed specifically for Azulão I’s operating environment, a hard requirement for the plant to run reliably within the corridor’s complex electrical conditions. Connecting remote generation assets to large-scale grids often demands site-specific solutions that go well beyond off-the-shelf equipment. Azulão I is a concrete example of what that process actually looks like.

Gas capacity plays a grid-balancing role as Brazil expands renewables

Brazil’s energy mix is shifting fast. According to the country’s Ten-Year Energy Expansion Plan (PDE 2035), developed by the Energy Research Company (EPE), renewables are projected to cover more than 85% of Brazil’s electricity generation by 2035, driven largely by wind and solar.

That growth creates a familiar problem: wind and solar are non-dispatchable. Their output depends on weather, not on when the grid needs power. As their share rises, the system needs sources that can ramp up or down on demand—and do it reliably.

Gas turbines like the 7HA.02 are built for exactly that role, able to follow load changes quickly, filling gaps when renewable output drops and stepping back when it surges. In a grid increasingly dominated by variable sources, that flexibility carries real operational value.

Eneva is positioned to play that role at scale. The company is Brazil’s largest private natural gas operator, managing 38 assets across four sedimentary basins. It holds 1.62 trillion cubic feet in natural gas reserves (2P)—the largest onshore volume among operators in the country—and 10 GW of total generation capacity across ten states.

Scheduled for commercial operation in July 2027

Azulão I started commercial operations on August 19, 2026, in Silves, Amazonas, about 205 miles from Manaus. The 295 MW gas-fired plant is contracted to supply firm, dispatchable power to Brazil’s SIN for 15 years.

The facility runs on GE Vernova’s 7HA.02 gas turbine and is built on Eneva’s Reservoir-to-Wire model. A custom SSR blocking filter and torsional stress relay were engineered specifically to allow stable integration into the Tucuruí-Macapá-Manaus transmission corridor—one of the world’s longest high-voltage lines.

Azulão II is scheduled for commercial operation in July 2027. Together, the two plants are expected to deliver up to 950 MW. The project reflects a broader shift underway in Brazil’s energy sector: as renewables push toward 85% of generation by 2035, dispatchable gas capacity is increasingly a grid-stabilization tool rather than a baseload resource.

Kelly Lippke

Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.