SAO PAULO (Reuters) – India’s Sterlite, China’s State Grid, and Colombia’s Isa clinched licenses to build power transmission lines in Brazil in a government auction on Thursday that is expected to draw a total of 6 billion reais ($1.55 billion) in investment.

Some 47 companies and consortia registered to present bids at the auction at Sao Paulo’s stock exchange B3, which led to a competitive round.

Under auction rules, the companies that offered the biggest discounts in the tariffs would win. Brazil’s electricity regulator, Aneel, registered a 55 percent fall in average tariffs the companies will be allowed to charge.

Sterlite (SPGV.NS), which debuted in Brazil last year, clinched six projects that will require around 3.6 billion reais to build, according to Aneel.

Cteep, a unit of Colombia’s Isa, won two projects, with projected investments of 880 million reais, while CPFL, a subsidiary of China’s State Grid, was granted a project that is slated to cost about 102 million reais.

Electricity heavyweights such as Portugal’s EDP and Spain’s Iberdrola, bidding through their joint venture Neoenergia, left empty-handed, amid the hot competition.

The licenses include a 30-year contract to operate the lines, with pre-defined annual revenues coming from the tariffs to be charged for the service.

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