Just over 530,000 consumers are still without electricity in the metropolitan region of São Paulo this Monday morning after last Friday’s strong storm, with winds of more than 100 km/h that damaged parts of the electrical network, said the distributor Enel São Paulo.
The night before, representatives of the regulatory agencies Aneel and Arsesp stated that the company’s mobilization to respond to the event was “much below expectations”, according to a preliminary analysis, and reinforced that Enel will be notified, in a process that could lead to the recommendation expiry of the company’s contract.
The blackout following an extreme weather event, which left at least five people dead in the region, repeats a reality experienced in Enel’s São Paulo concession area since the end of last year, a situation that has angered consumers and authorities and led to the imposition of fines millionaires due to the company’s delay in reestablishing the provision of services to the population.
According to Enel São Paulo, since Friday 1.5 million customers have had their service back to normal, while 537 thousand are still without electricity. There are 354 thousand customers without power in the capital, 36.9 thousand in Cotia, 32.7 thousand in Taboão da Serra, and 28.1 thousand in São Bernardo do Campo.
READ MORE: Rains leave 2.6 million without power in the State of São Paulo
Last month, Enel São Paulo even presented the actions of a contingency plan designed to face extreme weather events during the summer at its three distributors, which serve 15 million customers in the States of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Ceará.
According to the company, it was planned to hire 5,000 new employees by 2026 to reinforce field teams, and add 1,650 new vehicles to the fleet.
According to information from Enel and the regulatory agency Aneel, to respond to last Friday’s blackout, the São Paulo concessionaire’s field teams were reinforced with personnel loaned by Enel’s distributors in Rio de Janeiro and Ceará and also by other concessionaires, such as EDP São Paulo and Light and the ISA Cteep transmitter.
The night before, directors of the federal and state regulatory agencies responsible for overseeing the provision of electricity services raised concerns about the mobilization capacity and speed of Enel teams in responding to the population after the storm.
Thiago Nunes, president of Arsesp, said that the contingency plan presented by Enel provided for 2,500 people to work on restoring services in an extreme situation like Friday’s.
“This number has not yet been reached, today we have around 1,700, 1,800 people. 48 hours after the events, the mobilization that was expected due to an event of this magnitude has not yet reached”, said Nunes.
The general director of Aneel, Sandoval Feitosa, highlighted that since 2018 around 320 million reais in fines have been imposed on Enel São Paulo. According to him, the last two, which total 260 million reais and refer to extreme weather events since the end of last year, have had payment suspended by court order.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy, in turn, avoided making direct charges to Enel, as in the past, and aimed its criticism at Aneel, saying that the authority “clearly shows a failure in supervising the energy distributor”. The ministry scheduled a press conference with Minister Alexandre Silveira this Monday, at 10 am, in São Paulo to comment on the case.
(By Letícia Fucuchima)
