The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, said that Enel does not make the necessary investments in the São Paulo power grid and that if the São Paulo government were the granting power, the concession would not be renewed. The concession of the service is federal. Freitas also stated that the contract with Enel is old and bad. He participated on the morning of Monday of Forum promoted by Veja magazine to discuss the country’s infrastructure, held in São Paulo.
– Over time, we saw the following, the company does not make the necessary investments. Why? Because it will not be recognized in the fare. And, as it is not recognized in the fare, the company does not make the investment. It is a cash generating company, it is a revenue -generating company, but it does not make the necessary investments – said the governor when asked during a panel about private capital and infrastructure if the company was prepared for next rainfall season in Sao Paulo.
Enel has a concession contract for the distribution of electricity in part of the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, including the capital. The area of expertise covers 24 municipalities, including the capital, serving about 7.155 million customers, representing approximately 18 million people. Enel’s contract with the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) is scheduled to win in 2028, but there is the possibility of extension for another 30 years.
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In October 2024, heavy rains in Sao Paulo left 2.1 million Enel clients in the dark. In some regions, customers have been in the dark for over a week.
Tarcisio said Enel’s concession contract is old and has only two performance indicators, which are easy to hit. The two planned indicators are average time without power and average number of interruptions.
The governor questioned why the company takes so long to reconnect the network in extreme situations and said this is because people, investment and, above all, automation.
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– The speed of recomposition of a network, the speed of energy remaining, is closely linked to the level of automation that this network has. And then I’m talking about investment. If I was the holder of the service, if I was a granting power, if I had the federal government, what would I do? First, it would not extend the contract, ”said the governor, who stated that the concession is very large and should be divided into two. “I think Sao Paulo can’t accept that this contract is extended,” he said.
The governor said that the state ended the first semester with R $ 354 billion in investments hired in infrastructure concessions. He said the government’s expectation was to end the four years of office with something between $ 220 billion and $ 250 billion.
Among the concessions of public services to private capital made by São Paulo, Tarcísio highlighted the privatization of Sabesp, completed in July 2024, and gave positive figures of the company. He said the company that invested about $ 3 billion to $ 4 billion a year, and this year has invested $ 7 billion, has made 410,000 water calls and 529,000 sewage calls.
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Waterways will be granted
In addition to the governor of São Paulo, the event was attended by the Minister of Ports and Airports, Silvio Costa Filho, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite, and several CEOs from Mpresas, such as Sabesp, Carlos Piani, Motiva, and Guilherme Penin, Cosan.
Minister Silvio Costa stated that the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, contrary to the expectation of part of the market and the productive sector, has no prejudice regarding partnerships with the private sector, and the concessions advance in the country, whether from roads, ports and airports. He pointed out that next year should be initiated by the conxesion of waterways, which has the potential to reduce by 40% of logistical transport costs in relation to road transport. There will be concessions in the Paraguay, Tocantins, Madeira and San Francisco rivers.
“Brazil has lost many years by not prioritizing waterway concessions,” he said.