Linhas de transmissão: Os fios que costuram o país

Cerejo, Lucas Nakamura

doi:10.5281/zenodo.23539594

No. 042 Energy · biomass Electricity in Brazil 1/3

Transmission lines

The wires that stitch the country together

Record, downloads and citation

Map of Brazil in Albers conic projection, with neighbouring countries in grey and the ocean in pale blue. Transmission lines are coloured by voltage: ochre up to 230 kV, clay for 345 and 440 kV, plum for 500 to 765 kV and, thicker, deep blue for the direct-current lines. Dark dots mark the 780 substations. The grid is dense in the South-East, the South and along the north-eastern coast and sparse in the Amazon, crossed by long lines running from Pará and Rondônia down to the South-East. An arrowed callout points to the longest line, 2,552 km at 800 kV. In the panel, bars compare the length of each voltage class and a list gives the four longest lines. — Fig. 042 Brazil EPSG:4674 Source: EPE, IBGE, Natural Earth

From the Xingu to Rio de Janeiro, an 800 kV direct-current line runs 2,552 km to carry Belo Monte’s power to the South-East: it is the longest of the 1,712 existing transmission lines mapped by EPE. Adding up circuits, they come to 170.2 thousand km of lines and 780 substations. Lines of 500 to 765 kV make up most of the length, 68.0 thousand km; the eleven direct-current lines, 19.5 thousand km, bring the power of Itaipu, the Madeira plants and Belo Monte to the South-East. On the map, the grid thickens in the South-East, the South and along the north-eastern coast, and reaches the Amazon through a handful of wires. First plate of the collection “Electricity in Brazil”.

Technical record · downloads · citation

At a glance

Layers

linhas_transmissao line 1,712 lines: voltage, length, year in service, concession holder and voltage class
subestacoes point 780 substations: voltages, year in service, concession holder and state
ufs polygon 27 states
limite_nacional polygon National boundary

Metadata

Sources: EPE — WebMap: existing transmission lines and substations, as published in the MapBiomas infrastructure database (2022)
IBGE — Municipal Mesh 2025 (state and national boundaries) (2025)
Natural Earth — neighbouring countries (via world-atlas)
Extent: Brazil
CRS / Projection: SIRGAS 2000 (EPSG:4674)
EPSG:4674
Software: Python · GeoPandas · GDAL · QGIS · Node.js · d3-geo
Method: EPE’s existing transmission lines and substations, grouped into four voltage classes; length as declared by EPE and checked against the geodesic measurement.
Version: v1.0.0
Licence: CC BY 4.0
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23539594

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Figure to reuse

The map without a frame, with legend, scale, reference system and credit written on it: ready for papers, lectures and slides. In two versions: with the basemap (neighbours and sea) or only the mapped area, on white.

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How to cite

Cerejo, L. N. (2026). Linhas de transmissão: os fios que costuram o país [Transmission lines: The wires that stitch the country together] (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23539594

@dataset{cerejo2026_transmissao_brasil,
  author    = {Cerejo, Lucas Nakamura},
  title     = {Linhas de transmissão: Os fios que costuram o país},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  version   = {1.0.0},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23539594},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23539594},
  language  = {portuguese},
  note      = {English title: Transmission lines: The wires that stitch the country together. Licence CC BY 4.0}
}

How to read this plate area, projection, scale, legend and source · 1 terms

1 Area: Brazil The area the plate covers. Outside it, neighbours and sea are drawn in grey, just for orientation.
2 Coordinates and projection: SIRGAS 2000 (EPSG:4674) Drawn in Albers, which preserves areas, so the size of patches can be compared. The layers are in SIRGAS 2000; the drawing’s projection is written in the colophon at the foot of the panel.
3 Scale: Graphic scale bar in the panel The scale bar is true on the central meridian; away from it, measured distances vary a little.
4 Legend and layers: 4 layers in the GeoPackage · line, point, polygon Read the legend before the map: it tells you whether a colour is a rate or a class, and whether a circle is a total.
5 Sources: EPE (2022); IBGE (2025); Natural Earth Every figure comes from a public source, with its year. The data sheet gives each one’s address.

Terms on this plate

Albers projection: An equal-area conic projection: it flattens the Earth onto paper without changing areas. A municipality twice as large takes up twice as much paper, which is why it is used to compare quantities across the whole of Brazil.

Anatomy of a plate Full glossary

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Layers, table and figures, under CC BY 4.0. Cite with the DOI.

Full record and citation

Method notes · No. 042

Electricity transmission lines in Brazil

Português · English

Plate No. 042, the first of three in the collection Electricity in Brazil: before the power plants, the wires that carry power from where it is made to where it is used.

What the files contain

Layer (GPKG)	Geometry	Contents
`linhas_transmissao`	line	1,712 lines: `nome`, `concessionaria`, `tensao_kv`, `extensao_km` (declared by EPE), `ano_operacao`, `faixa`, `corrente_continua`
`subestacoes`	point	780 substations: `nome`, `concessionaria`, `tensao_kv` (all voltages, as in the source), `tensao_max_kv`, `ano_operacao`, `uf`
`ufs`	polygon	27 states, with their region
`limite_nacional`	polygon	outline of the country

The GPKG is zipped and attached to the energia-eletrica-2026 release. Its QGIS styles match the plate: lines coloured and thickened by voltage class, the direct-current ones in deep blue, and substations as light dots with a dark outline.

The CSV holds the table of the 1,712 lines, in UTF-8, without geometry.

Method

Transmission lines and substations classed as existing in EPE’s WebMap, in the copy published by the MapBiomas infrastructure database (situation in 2022).
Lines are grouped into four voltage classes: up to 230 kV; 345 and 440 kV; 500 to 765 kV; and 600 and 800 kV, which in Brazil are the direct-current lines from Itaipu, the Madeira and Belo Monte. The 765 kV line, also from Itaipu, is alternating current and sits in the third class.
Length is the one EPE declares for each line: 170.2 thousand km in all. The geodesic measurement of the routes, on the GRS80 ellipsoid, gives 169.2 thousand km, close to the declared figure.
Of the lines with a recorded year in service, 52% of the length entered service in the 2010s.

Limitations

Each circuit is a line: a route with two circuits counts twice in the length. The Madeira and Xingu – Estreito direct-current bipoles appear as two records each.
430 lines, 31.9 thousand km, have no year in service, so the count by decade covers only those that do.
The database is a snapshot of 2022: lines opened later are not on the map.
EPE’s mapping covers transmission; distribution networks are left out.

View this map’s folder on GitHub