Enel admits that the blackout affected twice as many consumers in São Paulo

A the company responsible for distributing electricity in São Paulo, reported that the number of customers impacted by the blackout in December, caused by the arrival of an extratropical cyclone, was 4.4 million.

Previously, the company had announced that around 2 million customers had been reached in and in the metropolitan region.

“2 million customers impacted on the days of the extratropical cyclone, December 10th and 11th, corresponds to the peak of registered customers, in real time, simultaneously”.

In its statement, the company states that “there were 12 consecutive hours of strong winds and, as the company reconnected disconnected customers, others were successively impacted by the force of the gale. The accumulated number of disconnected customers throughout the 10th was significantly higher, determined in an analysis after the weather event.”

Enel says that this data was audited by itself and that the information was forwarded to the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) on December 19th.

Crisis

The energy supply crisis in São Paulo, especially after the events of December, made the government of the State of São Paulo and the city hall ask for the contract with Enel to be broken. Tarcísio de Freitas and Ricardo Nunes, together with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, announced in December that they would submit to Aneel a request for the expiration of the distribution and energy concession contract that Enel has with the capital of São Paulo.

This Monday (12), President Lula ordered an investigation into the failures of the concessionaire in São Paulo.

Wind

The cyclone that hit São Paulo on December 10th and 11th generated winds that reached 98km/h in some areas of the metropolitan region. More than 330 trees fell, some of them onto the wiring, which ended up interrupting the power supply.

Thousands of people were left without electricity for a few days.

*With Agência Brasil