Supplying Electricity Demand to Low-Income Residential Consumers Through Photovoltaic Generation: A Sustainable Alternative to Electrical Energy Social Tariff

Brazil has a public policy for low-income residential consumers called Electrical Energy Social Tariff (TSEE), in which they receive a gradual discount on the energy bills according to their respective consumption. This work assesses the possibility of substituting the TSEE with the installation of photovoltaic systems (PV) to supply the demand of low-income consumers and analyzes the project's economic feasibility and the associated challenges. The proposed solution assumes the supply of all low-income consumers based on Brazilian public and official data from 2021. The results demonstrate that investing in photovoltaic systems is highly feasible as a Net Present Value (NPV) of R$163 billion and an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 25.47% were obtained.