Power Generation Possibilities in the State of São Paulo, Brazil

São Paulo is the Brazilian state with the largest economic production, the largest population and the largest industrial park of the country, with a participation in GDP of 36.6% (population: 34 million; area: 248,600 km²; urbane population: 92,8%; illiteracy: 10%; infantile mortality: 26.2/1000). Great part of the industry from São Paulo concentrates in the metropolitan area of São Paulo. Nevertheless, in the interior several cities are becoming important in many industrial sectors. After 1930 São Paulo became the vanguard of the Brazilian modernization. Concurrently with the agricultural expansion the state had an extraordinary industrial development. Channeling the great flows of investments of the American and European multinationals and the great internal migratory currents, São Paulo increased its population vastly, it diversified its social structure and it consolidated its economic power. However, the poverty of a great part of its population is a severe social problem. The State of São Paulo, in 1995, consumed 82.9 TWh of electricity, with the consumption of the industrial sector of 39.6 TWh. In that same year Brazil consumed a total of 249.9 TWh, and of this total value, 118.0 TWh was consumed by the industrial sector. By analyzing the evolution tendencies of energy consumption in São Paulo in the last years, it is possible to identify important aspects of the energetic development of this State, particularly in relation to the perspectives of natural gas utilization in gas turbines for power generation.