L'émergence d'une politique européenne de l'énergie a pu être constatée dès les origines de la construction européenne, notamment par la création des Communautés européennes. Pour autant, les difficultés rencontrées par les deux Communautés sectorielles ont conduit l'Union européenne à tenter de conduire son action dans le cadre du Traité instituant la Communauté européenne qui était exempt de toute disposition concernant le secteur énergétique. Toutefois, de nombreux éléments permettent d'attester du renouvellement de la politique européenne de l'énergie depuis ces dernières années, confirmant l'importance que revêt ce secteur stratégique, à l'instar de la notion qui lui sert de fondement : la sécurité énergétique. La notion de sécurité énergétique est singulière, car chaque Etat tend, au travers de sa politique nationale, à garantir la sécurité des approvisionnements énergétiques, ce à quoi ne déroge pas l'action européenne énergétique qui a aussi cette finalité. Cependant, la sécurité énergétique ne se traduit pas uniquement par cet objectif. Elle revêt différentes significations qui en font une notion bien plus complexe que ne pourrait le laisser penser en apparence son rôle au sein de la politique européenne de l'énergie. En tant que fondement de l'action européenne dans le secteur de l'énergie, la sécurité énergétique a permis de l'inscrire dans un mouvement d'impulsion qui a été à l'origine du déploiement d'initiatives européennes dépassant le simple cadre dessiné par l'article 194 du TFUE, et qui a enfin doté l'Union européenne d'une compétence explicite dans ce domaine. Au-delà de sa fonction qui se traduit par l'objectif de garantie de l'approvisionnement énergétique au sein de l'Union européenne, la sécurité énergétique favorise ainsi le développement d'une action européenne renforcée dont elle est la finalité, tout en étant, en tant que fondement, à l'initiative d'actions subsidiaires dans le domaine de l'énergie. / The emergence of a European energy policy has been observed from the beginning of European integration, particularly by the creation of the European Communities. However, the difficulties encountered by both sectorial Communities have led the European Union to attempt to drive its action under the Treaty establishing the European Community, in which none of its articles was concerning the energy sector. However, many elements can attest of the renewal of the European energy policy in recent years, confirming that energy is a strategic sector, as is its funding principle: the energy security. The concept of energy security is unique because each state is, through its national policy, ensuring the security of its energy supplies. In this domain, local notional policies meet with the European Union energy policy purpose. However, energy security cannot be defined only as an objective. It has different understandings which are much more complex than could suggest its function in the European energy policy concept. As the basis for European Union action in the energy sector, energy security has created the momentum that enabled the development of European initiatives beyond the simple framework outlined by Article 194 TFEU, which finally allowed the primary law to provide an explicit European competence in this area. Beyond its function to ensure energy supply in the European Union, energy security enforces its final goal - the development of a stronger European action – and provides the foundation for European subsidiary actions.

A indústria de energia elétrica é caracterizada por sua importância no planejamento estratégico de um país, uma vez que o crescimento e desenvolvimento socioeconômico são respaldados pela disponibilidade energética nacional. Nesse sentido, a expansão da capacidade de geração, transmissão e distribuição são essenciais para o acompanhamento da evolução econômica e para a inserção social. Com base na atual configuração da matriz energética brasileira e no plano de expansão de energia elétrica, o planejamento de investimentos em projetos de geração é importante para suportar o desenvolvimento do país e o financiamento desses projetos é fundamental para que o planejamento seja cumprido. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho analisa a evolução das formas de financiamento adotadas nos empreendimentos de geração hidrelétrica de grande porte no Brasil, bem como busca identificar fontes alternativas de recursos adequadas às características desses projetos. Para isso, aborda-se o histórico do setor elétrico brasileiro, que alterna entre períodos de predomínio de investimentos públicos. Posteriormente, discute-se a dupla função do poder político, seja por defender os recursos naturais objetos de concessão, seja pela busca de atratividade de investimentos no setor de energia elétrica, e a atuação do BNDES como agente financiador da expansão de energia, com base no modelo Project Finance. As principais características do modelo de Project Finance são apresentadas no capítulo 4 e aborda-se seu aparecimento no Brasil e, mais especificamente, no desenvolvimento do setor elétrico brasileiro. Além disso, investiga-se como os critérios ambientais, relevantes nos empreendimentos de grande porte, interagem com a regulação e com a concessão de financiamentos. Por fim, analisa-se os financiamentos recentes das Usinas Hidrelétricas Santo Antônio, Jirau e Belo Monte, a evolução das políticas praticadas pelo BNDES e as possíveis alternativas de fontes de recursos para investimentos em infraestrutura e, portanto, empreendimentos hidrelétricos de grande porte. / The electric power industry is characterized by its importance in the strategic planning of a country, since the growth and socioeconomic development are supported by national energy availability. In this regard, the expansion of generation capacity, transmission and distribution are essential for monitoring the economic evolution and social inclusion. Based on the current configuration of the Brazilian energy matrix and on the expansion plan for electricity, planning investments in generation projects is important to support the country\'s development, and financing is the key to accomplish such projects. In this context, this paper analyzes the evolution of financing adopted in Brazilian large scale projects of hydroelectric generation as well as seeks to identify alternative funding sources appropriate to the features of these projects. Therefore, the history of the Brazilian electric sector is discussed, which present alternates periods of predominance of public and private investments. In addition, the dual role of political power is discussed, whether by defending natural resources, subject to governmental concession, whether by the pursuit of attractiveness of investments in the electric sector. Also the role of BNDES as financing agent of the expansion of generation capacity is important to be considered, as well as the main features of the Project Finance and its presence on the Brazilian electric sector. Furthermore, a study of how environmental principles, relevant to large energy projects, interact with regulation and the granting of loans is prepared. Finally, the recent funding of Santo Antonio, Jirau and Belo Monte hydroelectric plants analysis is conduced, with regards of the development of financial policies of BNDES and possible alternatives sources of funds for infrastructure investments such as large hydroelectric projects.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Government and Public Administration

In accordance with the main aim of the study, a widely accessible, modifiable tool was created for parties interested in maintaining the national electricity supply network and parties interested in informing policy on plug-in vehicle adoption schemes and recharging behaviour control. The Parry Tool enables the user to incorporate present limits to plug-in vehicle recharging demand scheduling as imposed by the state of present technology (no third party mechanism for monitoring and control of recharging), present human travel behaviour needs and existing patterns in electricity usage; into the investigation of the impacts of recharging demand impacts and the design of mitigation measures for deflecting (parrying) worst case scenarios. The second aim of the project was to demonstrate the application of the Parry Tool. The multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary information gathered by the Parry Tool was used to produce national demand profiles for plug-in vehicle recharging demand, calculated using socioeconomic and travel behaviour-estimated population sizes for plug-in eligible vehicles and vehicle usage patterns, which were added to existing national electricity demand for a chosen test week – this was the first scenario subsequently tested. The information gathered by the Parry Tool was then used to inform the design of two demand management methods for plug-in vehicle recharging: Recharging Regimes and weekly recharging load-shifting – these were the second and third scenarios subsequently tested. Unmitigated simultaneous recharging demand in scenario 1 (all vehicles assumed to recharge at home upon arrival home every day) severely exacerbated peak demand, raising it by 20% above the highest peak in existing demand for the year 2009 over half an hour from 58,554 MW to 70,012 MW – a challenge to the generation sector. This increased the difference between daily demand minima and maxima and made the new total demand have sharper peaks – a challenge for grid regulators. Recharging Regimes in scenario 2 split the estimated national plug-in vehicle populations into groups of different sizes that started recharging at different times of the day, with the word ‘regime’ being applied because the spread of start times changed over the course of the test week from workdays to weekend. This avoided exacerbation of the peak and reduced the difference between daily demand minima and maxima by raising minima, providing a load-levelling service. Scenario 3 embellished the Recharging Regimes with workday-to-weekend recharging load-shifting that therefore took better advantage of the often overlooked weekly pattern in existing demand (demand being higher on workdays than weekends), by allowing partial recharging of a segment of the plug-in vehicle population. Limited consideration of the impact of changing vehicle energy usage (for which distance travelled was assumed to proxy in this study) showed that the more vehicles used their batteries during the day, the better the levelling effect offered by Recharging Regimes. Greater utilisation of battery capacity each day, however, can also be assumed to lessen the potential for workday-to-weekend load levelling, because load-shifting depends upon vehicles being able to partially recharge or defer recharging to later days and still meet their travel needs plus keep a reserve State Of Charge (SOC) for emergency and other unplanned travel. Whilst altering vehicle energy usage did not change the finding that unmitigated simultaneous recharging exacerbated existing peak demand, it was noted that when limited mileage variation was considered this sharpened the profile of total demand – the rise and fall of the new peak far steeper than that of the original peak in existing demand. The Parry Tool combines a series of integrated methods, several of which are new contributions to the field that use UK data archives but may potentially be adapted by researchers looking at energy issues in other nations. It presents a novel fossil-fuel based justification for targeting road transport – acknowledging energy use of fossil fuel as the originator of many global and local problems, the importance of non-energy use of petroleum products and subsequent conflicts of interest for use, and a fossil fuel dependency based well-to-wheel assessment for UK road transport for the two energy pathways: electricity and petroleum products. It presents a method for the recalculation and ranking of top energy use/users using national energy use statistics that better highlights the importance of the electricity industry. It also presents the first publicly documented method for the direct consultation and extraction of vehicle-focused statistics from the people-focused National Travel Survey database, including a travel behaviour and household income-based assessment of plug-in vehicle eligibility, used to scale up to national estimates for battery electric and plug-in electric hybrid vehicle (BEV and PHEV) national population sizes. The work presented here is meant to allow the reader to perceive the potential benefits of using several resources in combination. It details the Parry Tool, a framework for doing so, and where necessary provides methods for data analysis to suit. It should however be noted that methods were kept as simple as possible so as to be easily followed by non-specialists and researchers entering the field from other disciplines. Methods are also predominantly data-exploratory in nature: strong conclusions therefore should not be drawn. Rather, the work here should be seen as a guideline for future work that may more rigorously study these combined topics and the impacts they may have upon plug-in vehicle ownership, usage behaviour, impacts of recharging upon the national network and the design of mitigation measures to cope with this new demand.

Thesis. 1977. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / M.C.P.

O conjunto de leis, decretos e instrumentos regulatórios que regem o setor elétrico a partir da virada deste século é bastante complexo. Em paralelo, o desafio constante da expansão da oferta de energia elétrica para o atendimento da demanda sempre crescente de um país em desenvolvimento como o Brasil requer análise profunda de seu arranjo institucional. Adicionalmente, a expansão da oferta também depende do desenvolvimento de ferramentas para melhorar a gestão dos ativos de geração de energia elétrica que irão atender esse desafio. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho se propõe a fazer um mapeamento dos principais componentes de incerteza e risco associados à geração de energia elétrica no Brasil sob o ponto de vista regulatório. Analisa, assim, o modelo em vigor desde a promulgação da Lei 10.848 de 2004, o qual promove a competição entre fontes de energia de natureza complementar, mas com características distintas. No percurso deste estudo são discutidos instrumentos para avaliar o arranjo das unidades de geração em um portfolio de ativos de fontes diversas, bem como seus principais componentes e, em que medida, a regulação em vigor favorece a sinergia entre as diferentes fontes de geração elétrica. Na medida em que este arranjo setorial se baseia na contratação de energia elétrica de longo prazo, os resultados deste trabalho indicam que a sinergia desejada entre as fontes de geração de energia elétrica fica restrita apenas ao mercado de curto prazo, extremamente volátil, conquanto poderia ser aproveitada no desenho de um portfolio mais eficiente, tanto para o país quanto para os investidores em geração. / The set of laws, decrees and regulatory instruments leading the electricity sector in the new century is quite complex in Brazil. In parallel, the constant challenge of expanding the supply of energy to meet the ever increasing demand of a developing country requires a deep analysis of this institutional configuration designed to simplify the understanding of the sector major issues and improve the management assets to generate electricity that will meet this challenge. This work intends to map the key uncertainty and risk components associated with power generation in Brazil under the regulatory perspective. To do so, it analyzes the model in place since the enactment of Law #10,848 in 2004 which promotes the competition among energy sources with different characteristics. In the course of the text here presented it is conducted a discussion about the tools designed to evaluate the selection of power plants in a portfolio of assets from different energy sources, analyzing its main components, and the synergy level among these different sources. Additionally, it is also addressed the regulatory environment and its implications for the power industry in Brazil. Through this study it was found that the extent to which this regulatory arrangement is based on long term power purchase agreements, the desired synergy between sources of power generation is restricted to the highly volatile spot market, although it could be used in designing a more efficient portfolio, both for the country and for investors in generation.

Affordability of energy in the domestic sector is the product of three interrelated factors - level of household income, level of energy bills (which are a product of prices and levels of energy demand, mediated by tariffs and the retail market), and the amount of energy that a household needs to maintain a healthy living environment. This thesis focusses on the factors of affordability which are most relevant to the energy policy which are energy bills and energy efficiency, both of which are considered in the context of household income. Affordability of energy in Great Britain is important for separate, but over-lapping reasons. Firstly, it has important political impacts - as energy prices continue to rise, energy is repeatedly highlighted as one of the biggest financial concerns for households (uSwitch, 2013; YouGov, 2015; DECC, 2014f), leading affordability of energy to become an increasingly political issue (Lockwood, 2016). Secondly, affordability of energy has social implications which stem from the fact that the impact of rising energy bills is felt particularly strongly by those on low incomes and in inefficient homes – the fuel poor. In spite of it being twenty-five years since Brenda Boardman published her first book defining the issue of fuel poverty (Boardman, 1991), millions of households in Great Britain today still cannot afford adequate amounts of energy. This is significant because being able to afford access to basic levels of energy services such as warmth and light is essential for maintaining physical and mental health (Harrington et al., 2005; Stockton and Campbell, 2011). Thirdly, affordability has important implications for design of the energy system –a system focussed on minimising long-term costs, both through micro-scale features such as efficient network revenue regulation which keep costs down on a year-by-year basis, and macro-scale aspects such as through the development of a low-demand, highly flexible energy system which has the potential to bring costs down in the long term (Sanders et al., 2016), is likely to differ from one which in which affordability is less of a focus, or only a focus over the short term. This thesis responds to a gap in the literature in relation to the role that governance plays in affecting levels of affordability of energy for domestic consumers in Great Britain. It examines the impact of governance on energy prices and tariffs, and the impact of governance on energy efficiency of the housing stock in Great Britain. Both of these are examined in the context of levels of household income. Greater insight is gained by examining the impact of the energy governance structure in Denmark on Danish domestic energy efficiency standards, which are widely accepted to be very good (IEA, 2011). 7 This thesis makes use of existing academic and policy literature in tandem with data from fifty-six interviews with individuals from across the energy sectors in Great Britain and Denmark. The governance structure of energy in Great Britain is shown to be, on balance, not supportive of delivering affordable energy to domestic consumers. A number of specific issues within the current governance structure in Great Britain are identified. These include the presence of a limiting narrative, whereby policymakers consider affordability to be achieved principally through delivery of low prices; insufficient institutional capacity within OFGEM to keep network prices low, and monitor suppliers’ costs and profits; lack of wholesale market transparency; an anti-interventionist ideology leading to weak energy efficiency requirements for new-build and private rental properties; suppliers as poor executors of energy efficiency policy; weak demand-side interests; tariffs designed around the needs of suppliers, not consumers; an over-reliance on an uncompetitive retail market; a lack of institutional capacity amongst policy makers regarding energy efficiency, and network regulation; and weak consumer representation. A number of recommendations are put forward, including the fostering of a new narrative centred on energy efficiency; the redesign of tariffs to better protect the interests of consumers; the reallocation of responsibility for energy efficiency to local authorities; the development of greater institutional capacity among policymakers; the support for a more interventionist ideology supporting use of regulation; financial support for energy efficiency retrofit; the fostering of greater policy stability; development of new tariff structures; and the formation of a new consumer representative. Overall this thesis demonstrates that affordability of energy in unlikely to be delivered to domestic consumers in Great Britain unless significant changes are made to the governance structure of the energy sector.

Anthropogenic climate change is a global problem that affects every country and each individual. The UK introduced its own carbon budgets, aiming to reduce its GHGs by 80% by 2050 compared with 1990 levels. The United Nations Conference of the Parties in Paris in 2015 came to an agreement on limiting the global average temperature rise to "well below 2oC". It has been argued that the Paris Agreement requires deeper and more rapid emission reductions than current UK targets. The CO2 emissions from energy use by households account for almost a third of total CO2 emissions in the UK in recent years. The research aims to explore drivers of high energy consumption in order to identify where there may be intervention points that can achieve a greater level of emission reductions than conventional policy tools in the short to medium term. Previous studies have focused on either socioeconomic factors or practices to explore household energy consumption and CO2 emissions, but have not integrated both aspects to identify drivers behind high energy consumption. To address this gap in the literature, the research applies an interdisciplinary approach to analyse the interconnected factors impacting on household energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Socioeconomic characteristics and practice theory are combined in order to understand how and why energy is consumed at home, and specifically to explore high energy consumption and related CO2 emissions at the household level. Both quantitative cluster analyses based on household socioeconomic factors and qualitative data collection and thematic analyses on energy-related practices at home have been conducted in the research. Results indicate that various combinations of socioeconomic factors and dwelling-related characteristics can collectively lead to high CO2 emissions from energy use at home. Nonetheless, these characteristics cannot fully explain why some households are high emitters, as they still share a variety of similar characteristics with average households in the UK. Besides household socioeconomic factors and dwelling-related characteristics, the materials, procedure and meanings of practices; people's discursive and practical consciousness; and dominant meanings of the home, also collectively influence energy use at home. Policymakers should consider not only improving the energy efficiency of the dwelling and appliances, but also how people's hidden knowledge and routines allow or constrain the performance of energy-related practices, as well as how the existing meanings of practices and dominant meanings of the home can be supported with less energy input and associated CO2 emissions. Energy efficiency related policies could focus more on how to reduce the interruption to people's everyday lives and the level of space loss. Policymakers could also work with different stakeholders, such as local authorities and community groups to tackle the challenges of installation of double gazing, cavity wall and roof insulation in the private rented sector. Policies for promoting renewable electricity micro-generation in the UK can target more effectively the high emitters who are at home most weekdays, as they can be more flexible in rearranging their use of appliances in daily routines and potentially reduce energy consumption during the peak time. In addition to combining a novel range of approaches and perspectives to understanding energy use at home, the research makes a contribution to achieving deeper and more rapid emission reductions in the short to medium term in the UK by focusing on the drivers behind high energy consumption at home than average energy consumption in general.

A indústria de energia elétrica é caracterizada por sua importância no planejamento estratégico de um país, uma vez que o crescimento e desenvolvimento socioeconômico são respaldados pela disponibilidade energética nacional. Nesse sentido, a expansão da capacidade de geração, transmissão e distribuição são essenciais para o acompanhamento da evolução econômica e para a inserção social. Com base na atual configuração da matriz energética brasileira e no plano de expansão de energia elétrica, o planejamento de investimentos em projetos de geração é importante para suportar o desenvolvimento do país e o financiamento desses projetos é fundamental para que o planejamento seja cumprido. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho analisa a evolução das formas de financiamento adotadas nos empreendimentos de geração hidrelétrica de grande porte no Brasil, bem como busca identificar fontes alternativas de recursos adequadas às características desses projetos. Para isso, aborda-se o histórico do setor elétrico brasileiro, que alterna entre períodos de predomínio de investimentos públicos. Posteriormente, discute-se a dupla função do poder político, seja por defender os recursos naturais objetos de concessão, seja pela busca de atratividade de investimentos no setor de energia elétrica, e a atuação do BNDES como agente financiador da expansão de energia, com base no modelo Project Finance. As principais características do modelo de Project Finance são apresentadas no capítulo 4 e aborda-se seu aparecimento no Brasil e, mais especificamente, no desenvolvimento do setor elétrico brasileiro. Além disso, investiga-se como os critérios ambientais, relevantes nos empreendimentos de grande porte, interagem com a regulação e com a concessão de financiamentos. Por fim, analisa-se os financiamentos recentes das Usinas Hidrelétricas Santo Antônio, Jirau e Belo Monte, a evolução das políticas praticadas pelo BNDES e as possíveis alternativas de fontes de recursos para investimentos em infraestrutura e, portanto, empreendimentos hidrelétricos de grande porte. / The electric power industry is characterized by its importance in the strategic planning of a country, since the growth and socioeconomic development are supported by national energy availability. In this regard, the expansion of generation capacity, transmission and distribution are essential for monitoring the economic evolution and social inclusion. Based on the current configuration of the Brazilian energy matrix and on the expansion plan for electricity, planning investments in generation projects is important to support the country\'s development, and financing is the key to accomplish such projects. In this context, this paper analyzes the evolution of financing adopted in Brazilian large scale projects of hydroelectric generation as well as seeks to identify alternative funding sources appropriate to the features of these projects. Therefore, the history of the Brazilian electric sector is discussed, which present alternates periods of predominance of public and private investments. In addition, the dual role of political power is discussed, whether by defending natural resources, subject to governmental concession, whether by the pursuit of attractiveness of investments in the electric sector. Also the role of BNDES as financing agent of the expansion of generation capacity is important to be considered, as well as the main features of the Project Finance and its presence on the Brazilian electric sector. Furthermore, a study of how environmental principles, relevant to large energy projects, interact with regulation and the granting of loans is prepared. Finally, the recent funding of Santo Antonio, Jirau and Belo Monte hydroelectric plants analysis is conduced, with regards of the development of financial policies of BNDES and possible alternatives sources of funds for infrastructure investments such as large hydroelectric projects.

Submitted by Maria Aparecida (cidazen@gmail.com) on 2017-11-13T13:26:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniele de Fátima.pdf: 3283674 bytes, checksum: 56fe8cb03480237e34b489c2b61dbfd6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-13T13:26:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniele de Fátima.pdf: 3283674 bytes, checksum: 56fe8cb03480237e34b489c2b61dbfd6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-10 / The importance of Natural Gas in world is growing, with highlights to its efficiency and competitiveness, reaching the point of being considered the fuel of energy transition to a less carbonized matrix. When it comes to energy transition, a change in the profile of energy consumption is can be observed throughout the development of capitalism. What was an economy based on firewood and charcoal, facing the shortage of resources becomes supplied by mineral coal, that by technological limitations gives space to oil, perhaps the energy source with greater geopolitical strength witnessed until current days. The transition that shall happen in the next years will not be due to paucity or any other technological limitations of oil, but because since the world has become more rigorous and is uniting efforts so that the pollution level, largely due to the use of fossil energy sources, can reduce in order to maintain the future development of nations. In these terms, the natural gas launches as the most appropriated fuel to energy transition, keeping in sight its property of less polluting, reduced cost and high productivity. In Brazil, the energy matrix diversification model, predicting the growth of natural gas supply happened only at the beginning of XXI century, demanding a specific regulation mark so the private agents could also operate its industry and the costs of investments in specific assets could minimize. In the last four years, Maranhão became an important hub of natural gas production, benefiting from the opening of the industry to private agents. One of main questions of this research refers to the use of this input into the industry, having as reference three scenarios of princes into the internal energy market competition. To identify and forecast demand for natural gas into the selected sub-sectors is used as basis the GEE-matrix introduced by Braga (2015) and to measure the environmental impacts is used as reference the Montes (2000) method. Finally, it is proven that the insertion of natural gas into the state's industrial matrix is capable of generating economic, social and environmental gains for the population of Maranhão. / A importância do gás natural em termos mundiais é crescente, com destaques para sua eficiência e competitividade, a ponto de ser considerado o combustível da transição energética para uma matriz menos carbonizada. Quando se trata de transição energética, observa-se uma mudança no perfil de consumo de energia ao longo do desenvolvimento do capitalismo. O que era uma economia baseada em lenha e carvão vegetal, diante da escassez iminente dos insumos, passa a ser sustentada pelo carvão mineral, que por limitações tecnológicas cede espaço para o petróleo, talvez a fonte energética com maior força geopolítica presenciada até os dias atuais. A transição que deverá ocorrer nos próximos anos não será decorrente de escassez ou quaisquer limitações tecnológicas do petróleo, mas porque o mundo tornou-se mais exigente e está unindo esforços para que o nível de poluição, decorrente em grande parte das fontes energéticas fósseis, seja reduzido a fim de preservar o desenvolvimento futuro das nações. Nesses termos, o gás natural se lança como o combustível mais apropriado para a transição energética, tendo em vista sua característica de menos poluente, custo reduzido e elevado rendimento. No Brasil, o modelo de diversificação da matriz energética, prevendo-se o crescimento da oferta de gás natural ocorre somente no início do século XXI, exigindo um marco regulatório específico para que os agentes privados também passassem a operacionalizar a indústria e os custos decorrentes dos investimentos em ativos específicos fossem minimizados. O Maranhão passou figurar nos últimos quatro anos como polo importante de produção de gás natural, sendo beneficiado pela abertura da indústria aos agentes privados. Um dos principais questionamentos desta pesquisa se refere ao aproveitamento desse insumo no setor industrial, tendo como referência três cenários de preços na competição interenergética. Para identificar e prever a demanda de gás natural dos subsetores selecionados utiliza-se como base a metodologia GEE- Matriz, apresentada por Braga (2015) e para mensuração dos impactos ambientais, tomou-se como referência a metodologia de Montes (2000). Por fim, comprova-se que a inserção do gás natural na matriz industrial do Estado é capaz de gerar ganhos econômicos, sociais e ambientais para a população Maranhense.