Rafael Paulo
Judge at Brazil's Federal Regional Court of the First Region.
On 6 October 2026 Judge Rafael Paulo of the TRF-1 ordered ANEEL to decide within 48 hours on Pahlavan's bid to protect contracted grid capacity, and paused Replan substation awards until it had.
Last refreshed: 18 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Timeline for Rafael Paulo
Mentioned in: Brazil judge freezes Replan grid awards
Data Centres: Boom and BacklashBackground
Rafael Paulo, a desembargador (appeals judge) of Brazil's Federal Regional Court of the First Region, set the power regulator ANEEL a 48-hour limit on 6 October 2026 for deciding injunction requests filed by data-centre developer Pahlavan. Pending ANEEL's answer, his order kept the winners of the year's first access season from being awarded connections at the Replan substation, and stopped capacity matching Pahlavan's requests from being committed.
Paulo wrote that the order confers no priority, sets aside no capacity and authorises no contract. Pahlavan's three Paulínia projects had signed transmission contracts under the earlier access rules, each meant to climb from 71 MW to 157 MW in 2029. ANEEL had published no decision by 17 October.
Paulo ruled while Brazil's first competitive grid-access round was still under way; Pahlavan went on to take two of its three São Paulo slots.
What did the TRF-1 order on Pahlavan say?
Did the Brazilian court reserve grid capacity for Pahlavan?
Who is Rafael Paulo?
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 18 October 2026. Editorial standards.