Entry · Quality and losses
Technical losses
How much loss is inherent to transporting energy?
Acronyms: ANEEL, Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency; SAMP, Market Information Monitoring System for Economic Regulation, from ANEEL.
In one sentence
Unavoidable losses in transporting energy, such as the heating of conductors (Joule effect) and losses in transformer cores.
Real example
In 2025, at the concession holders that publish the technical split (32.6% of the reference injected energy), technical losses amounted to 7.2% of injected energyNature of the data: Estimated: a percentage estimated by model and applied to injected energy, not a measurement.
No Check this number record of its own in this example: the number comes from the panel's published database, which carries the source and the reference date.
Estimated: Value obtained by a statistical procedure, with uncertainty.
Why it matters
How it is measured
ANEEL estimates the percentage of efficient technical losses over injected energy, with models by grid segment (Module 7 of Prodist). In SAMP, the technical loss is the one reported in the energy balance: an estimate, not a measurement, which might differ from the approved regulatory technical percentage.
Unit: percentage of injected energy (estimated by model)
Not to be confused with
Technical losses come from the physics of transport (heating of conductors, transformer cores) and are estimated by model; non-technical losses are the difference between total and technical losses and include theft, fraud and metering and billing errors.
What cannot be concluded
- It cannot be concluded that all technical loss can be eliminated: it results from the physics of the grid.
Related entries
See in the panel
Official source
Literal excerpt from the document
Portuguese only“O transporte da energia, seja na Rede Básica ou na distribuição, resulta inevitavelmente em perdas técnicas relacionadas à transformação de energia elétrica em energia térmica nos condutores (efeito joule), perdas nos núcleos dos transformadores, perdas dielétricas etc.”
Literal excerpt from the document
Portuguese only“Os custos das perdas técnicas são considerados na tarifa de energia elétrica por serem inevitáveis em qualquer rede de distribuição no mundo, representando um custo para o setor elétrico.”
In other words: using the Prodist rules, ANEEL calculates the percentage of technical losses it considers efficient for the grid, as a fraction of injected energy.
Literal excerpt from the document
Portuguese only“As perdas técnicas são calculadas conforme as regras definidas no Módulo 7 do Prodist [...] estima-se o percentual de perdas técnicas eficientes relativas à energia injetada na rede.”
Documents accessed and text checked on Sep 30, 2026.