After listening to a variety of “no”, he arrange a enterprise that invests R$ 115 million in renewable power

Trinity Energias Renováveis, created in 2012, is diversifying its service portfolio and entering the distributed energy generation market

Trinity Energias Renováveis ​​is expanding its operations in the market and investing in the construction of solar energy generation plants. The move represents entry into the distributed generation segment, a new pillar for the company that offers consulting and negotiation services in the free energy market.

The company has just built two units in Bom Sucesso, Minas Gerais, at a cost of R$ 28 million, and has four more in progress – two in Rio de Janeiro, in Seropédica and Itaguaí, and another two also in Minas, in Mateus. Rudder.

The new plants will have investments of R$ 115 million and, with an installed capacity of 26.5 megawatts, they can serve 13,000 homes.

The forecast is that they will start operating in January 2023, the year in which Trinity expects to put up six more plants, four in the Northeast and two in the Midwest, with an investment of BRL 140 million in resources.

What are the company’s focuses?

The move is in line with the plan to arrive in 2025 with 100 megawatts of installed power.

“We are anticipating the plan to reach 100 megawatts in one year because we found good projects and realized that it was time to increase resources”, says João Sanches, CEO and founder of Trinity.

The entry into distributed generation seeks to take advantage of the sector’s good moment, increasingly in the spotlight and currently the only way for residential consumers to be able to reduce the value of their bills. Savings can be around 20% to 30%.

According to data from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, solar distributed generation reached 10 gigawatts at the beginning of the year. And the forecast, in the Ten-Year Energy Expansion Plan, prepared by the Energy Research Company (EPE), is that it will reach 34 GW in 2031.

The growing interest responds to both financial issues, with resource savings and ESG criteria, as it is a renewable source.

For the company, it tends to be a highly profitable investment, with a 75% margin. According to the executive, considering the return on capital contributed and the discharge of the financing contracted for the construction, in 10 years the operation is paid.

This means that the company guarantees about 15 years of high return, taking into account that the solar panels have an estimated lifespan of 25 years.

How Trinity works

The distributed generation pillar should represent a 5% increase in revenue by the end of 2023, estimates Sanches.

The company, which has among its clients companies such as Vale and Raizen, has been increasing its offer of products in the energy segment. When it was born, in 2012, it only offered companies consultancy on the free market, which involves carrying out technical feasibility analyses, studies and understanding and dealing with regulatory issues.

Between 2016 and 2017, it structured the free market trading desk, where it negotiates energy for its customers.

This arm currently accounts for 65% of Trinity’s revenue and was responsible for a jump in revenue, which went from R$4 million in 2016 to R$100 million in 2017. In 2022, the estimate is to close close to R$ 2 billion.

What is the impact of the change in the free energy market

For that reason, Sanches is all smiles when he talks about a new regulation in the free market scheduled to come into force in 2024. The measure will allow around 100 thousand consumers to adhere to the negotiation model, which today is restricted to companies that consume more of 500 kilowatts and are connected to the medium or high voltage grid.

“In 2024, any medium or high voltage consumer can go to the free market, that is, from 30 kilowatts. And, in 2026, the free market must also be opened for residences, as it is in developed countries. Then we will have a blue sea to navigate,” he explains.

These changes in the sector mean that the company is already considering that it will need a capitalization in the next three or four years, which can be either an IPO or other forms of negotiation. Along the way, it has contact with the issuance of debentures and CRIs (Certificate of Real Estate Receivables).

Chair tea in Acre

For Trinity to reach its current size, moving billions and with 50 professionals on the team, Sanches says he had to hear many no.

He almost “parachuted” into the energy area when he was hired by a company in the sector that had thermoelectric plants and used imported oil as fuel. Before, he worked in the financial market, operating on the stock exchange for a brokerage firm.

He stayed there for two years doing hedging and that’s where he got interested in the energy market.

He left to found Trinity, in 2012, when he was 23 years old and, he credits the youth and incipience of the free energy market in 2012, for the distrust with which he was treated when negotiating and presenting the company. “There were 20 meetings to get a company”.

One of the most remarkable experiences was going to Acre and not being attended by the owner of a company with whom I had made an appointment.

The businessman greeted him, said he had to wait and then just sent a message through his secretary that he couldn’t answer him four hours later. As he already had a return ticket, he returned to São Paulo.

“It was often very frustrating. What kept me there is that I won over some clients and I was very satisfied with the work and with the result that was brought to them”, he concludes.

Source: Exam