14/07/2022
REUTERS/Ian Cheibub
The National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) issued a summons to energy distributor Enel São Paulo, starting a process that could lead to the concession’s expiration, the regulatory agency said in a statement on Monday night.
According to the municipality, the subpoena arises from the concessionaire’s failure to comply with the contingency plan presented to regulatory bodies to deal with extreme weather events such as the one that occurred this month, when a storm interrupted the energy supply to 3.1 million customers in the region. metropolitan area of São Paulo, with the work to completely restore services taking five days.
Aneel also recalled that the São Paulo concessionaire of the Italian group Enel is a repeat offender regarding “unsatisfactory service to consumers in emergency situations”, in reference to a storm in November last year that also left millions of customers in the region without electricity for several days. .
The distributor has 15 days from receipt of the subpoena to present its statement. Aneel’s board of directors will evaluate the elements presented by the company and decide whether or not to recommend the expiration of the contract to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which is the granting authority and has the final decision on the matter.
The Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, had been demanding Aneel in the last week to open this process, which according to him had already been requested by the department since April. According to Silveira, the government needs technical basis to be able to evaluate intervention or expiry of the concession, since, at this moment, there are no official records that Enel São Paulo has been failing to comply with quality indicators for service provision.
(By Letícia Fucuchima)
