PNAST

Brazil's National Transmission System Access Policy, PNAST, held its first competitive allocation over 6 and 7 October 2026. Bids from seven qualified projects totalled 451 MW across four São Paulo connection points, and three data centres won the whole 228 MW. That week a federal appeals judge suspended awards at the Replan substation while ANEEL considered Pahlavan's claim to capacity granted under the previous access rules.

The policy was created by Decree 12.772 of 5 December 2025. It ends first-come access to the high-voltage grid: permanent connections and increases in contracted use now pass through periodic access seasons, in which the grid operator ONS reviews all requests together and runs a competitive process wherever demand exceeds capacity. Proceeds go to lowering tariffs. The decree set the first season within ten months of publication and requires at least two seasons a year after that.

Transitional rules explain the first fight. Requests filed before the decree had to receive access opinions within ten months, with no priority over future capacity, and those opinions cannot be revalidated. Within weeks of publication an ANEEL director publicly questioned whether the decree could lawfully hand access powers to ONS.