After signing the renewal of three energy distribution contracts, CPFL gains greater long-term predictability in the segment and positions itself as a consolidator, and must evaluate assets that are put up for sale, the electric company’s CEO told Reuters this Thursday.
According to Gustavo Estrella, the company controlled by the Chinese State Grid has organic growth in distribution as its base scenario, with a plan of more than R$25 billion in investments that will be carried out in the coming years to expand the regulatory asset base of the group’s concessionaires.
‘We already have the scale (in the sector), which enables us to look at any type of asset that comes to the market. That said, let’s look at it case by case… We do see ourselves as being a consolidating agent in this market’, he stated.
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CPFL and other large electrical companies last week signed contractual amendments for energy distribution with the federal government, guaranteeing the continuity of their businesses for another 30 years. The expectation among sector agents is that, once this process is complete, some companies may decide to sell assets.
Estrella stated that the early renewal of the contracts of three CPFL distributors will allow the group to make even more investments, for example, in intelligent metering of its customers’ consumption. However, to accelerate the change of meters, the company understands that investments need to be recognized annually in energy tariffs, something that is already being discussed with the regulatory body.
‘As there is no automatic recognition of this type of investment (in the tariff), I leave the investments to be made at the end of each tariff cycle, which creates a lot of inefficiency… As it stands, we are talking about making all the investments in smart metering in 20 years. It doesn’t make any sense, we don’t have all that time.’
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CPFL announced this Thursday a net profit of R$1.91 billion, an increase of 18.2% in the annual comparison. Ebitda remained stable in the period, at R$3.86 billion.
Default Challenges and GD Solar
Among the challenges for 2026, Estrella said that CPFL sees the risk of an increase in default on electricity bills, something that is already beginning to appear given the worsening of family debt. The group’s distributors recently had double-digit tariff adjustments approved, mainly driven by an increase in charges.
The executive also stated that the company is concerned about irregular expansions in solar distributed generation systems connected to its distributors’ network.
‘In some cases, we started to carry out inspections related to this topic, we see customers with four to five times more (power) than the approved project’, he said, highlighting that this causes operational problems for energy concessionaires.
‘Often we find out about a problem that has already happened in the network, an overload… This brings us a very big challenge, with loss of quality, loss of equipment burnout, replacement of network equipment’, he added.
The regulatory agency Aneel advanced last month with a process that aims to combat these irregular expansions, which can even create risks for the entire national electricity system.
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