Meet Our People: Anderson Lima, Power Consultant in Brazil - “Playing the tunes of power”

My interest in engineering sprang from my interest in math. I really enjoyed playing with numbers as a kid! I became an engineer to understand how the world works. I knew that science could explain why the sky is blue, for example, and how electricity energizes systems and why lightning happens. I like the multidisciplinary aspect of engineering; it’s math, physics, and chemistry all rolled into one.

I started in Hitachi in 2010. I spent the first decade of my career focused on electrical and mechanical substation design. In late 2019, I transitioned to Hitachi Energy's Power Consulting team. I’m based in Guarulhos, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, which is where I’m from.

One of the things I enjoy about my city is that it enables me to fully engage in one of my passions: Music! I play bass in three different bands. One plays Brazilian music with a little bit of soul and blues. Another band plays classic rock, and the third is a Sepultura (Brazilian thrash metal) tribute.

Unique, interconnected Brazil

When I first joined Power Consulting, I helped optimize installations via system studies. I ran simulations and models to analyze how different phenomena—a lightning strike, for example, or a transmission line that opens during operation—would affect a power system. We modeled different scenarios using specialized software we created, which helped us determine things like what materials to use, what size and length cables should be, etc.

The accuracy of parameters like these are especially crucial in Brazil. Our power grid is quite unique! We are much more interconnected than most other parts of the world. Of all our 27 states, only one is not electrically interconnected (yet). If we have an outage in the southern part of the country, it’s possible to transfer energy from somewhere else to fill the gap temporarily. It’s possible, but not necessarily easy, given how large we are!

The interconnection also means that Brazil has many rules in place to ensure its energy infrastructure continues functioning properly. My colleagues and I must always analyze our findings to see how a problem or solution in one region will affect other regions. As we design systems, we must view the country as a whole; our solutions must always follow through the entire network.

Reliance on renewables

Our energy landscape is unique as well, with nearly 90% of our power coming from renewable sources like hydroelectric, wind, and solar power. Hitachi is very much at the forefront of the energy transition, and this is very evident in Brazil, which currently has eleven large green hydrogen projects ongoing, and Hitachi is involved in nine of them! It makes me proud that my company and team help to transform how the world stores and uses energy.

Renewable energy can be stored as green hydrogen for later usage, which compensates for wind and solar energy variability. Hydrogen plants convert water into hydrogen with the discharge of electricity. Projects like the green hydrogen power plants directly contribute to decarbonization, once carbon dioxide that would normally be released into the atmosphere can be combined with this hydrogen to be transformed into methanol. Another important H2 byproduct is ammonia.

These projects require comprehensive planning. My team does so much more than perform electrical studies. We design entire power plant layouts, calculate complex chemical reactions, determine equipment placement, and manage everything from water treatment to gas compression.

Always evolving

It's an intricate and comprehensive work. Each day is different. We are never static; we are always evolving, always studying and learning, and that's what I find most amazing in Power Consulting. I love having a diverse team and I am actually a member of our local Diversity 360 committee, a group that plan and run the diversity and inclusion activities for Hitachi Energy in Brazil. It is great being part of an environment where people with different perspectives all works toward finding a solution and helping each other to get there!

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