The National Electric System Operator (ONS) in Brazil, which coordinates and controls the operation of generation and transmission across the National Interconnected System, has awarded 228 MW of grid capacity to three data center projects in the country as part of the 1st 2026 Access Season under the National Transmission System Access Policy (PNAST).
As noted in a translated press release, the capacity was awarded through a competitive process under PNAST to allocate remaining grid capacity at four connection points in São Paulo state. Seven projects took part in the process with a combined 451 MW of qualified demand. On Tuesday, all 228 MW of the capacity was awarded to Pahlavan One, Pahlavan Three, and Digital DC Brasil.
Pahlavan One and Three form part of CloudHQ’s GRU campus. Phase one and two of the buildout will deliver three 48 MW data centers each powered by an on-site substation. Digital DC Brasil is a local data center company operating under the Latin American data center platform NextStream created by investment firm Actis. The capacity will be used to expand NextStream’s Tamboré data center campus.
“When we designed this policy, our aim was to move past a logic of waiting and build a state policy based on planning, technical criteria and competitive processes. With the PNAST, we give agents more predictability, make investments more efficient and ensure that transmission expansion matches the country’s development needs,” said Alexandre Silveira, Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy.
“We close this first cycle with results that show the new transmission access model works. Beyond the large volumes of capacity analysed and made viable, we successfully held the PNAST’s first Competitive Process. This consolidates a more predictable, transparent and efficient environment for investors, consumers and planning for the expansion of Brazil’s electricity system,” said Marcio Rea, ONS Director-General.
As many as 367 projects registered in the 1st Access Season, requesting more than 20 GW of connections at 64 substation connection points across Brazil’s national grid. Combined with the transitional phase that ran before the 1st Access Season, ONS assessed more than 43 GW of requests. Around 30.7 GW of those requests were classified as viable or qualified.
“The strong participation from agents and the successful first Competitive Process show that the sector is ready for this new model. What we learned in this cycle will provide important input for the improvements planned in the Policy’s next editions,” said Maurício de Souza, ONS Director of IT, Agent Relations and Regulatory Affairs.
From 2027, ONS will run two Access Seasons a year. The first 2027 season will begin in December 2026 with the publication of the registration instructions and the technical note on methodology, assumptions and criteria. ONS will start accepting registrations in January 2027, with the competitive process set to take place in May 2027.