Vote against demand for centralized generators; process was left without a definitive decision after a request for review
Director Agnes da Costa, rapporteur of the process on power cuts at the (National Electric Energy Agency), voted, this Monday (June 22, 2026), for keeping MMGD (distributed micro and mini generation) out of regulation about. THE deliberationhowever, was suspended after a request from director Fernando Mosna Ferreira da Silva.
As a result, there is still no final decision from the agency’s board. The request for a review was made at an extraordinary Aneel meeting. Agnes’s vote will only be confirmed if the other directors accompany the rapporteur when the case returns to the agenda.
MMGD brings together smaller generation systems connected to the distribution network. In general, they are solar panels installed in homes, businesses, rural properties, condominiums, consortiums or companies. These consumers produce part of their own energy and can be compensated by surpluses injected into the grid on their electricity bill.
The exclusion goes against a demand from part of the electricity sector, especially large generators of solar and wind energy. These agents claim that MMGD contributes to excess supply at certain times of the day, but does not suffer the same financial effects as the cuts determined by the ONS (National Electric System Operator).
The regulation analyzed by Aneel deals with public consultation No. 45 of 2019, open to define operational and commercial criteria for generation cuts in the SIN (National Interconnected System). The proposal seeks to establish an order for the reduction of plants and regulate how the effects of these cuts will be distributed among agents after the operation.
The main impasse involving MMGD is that distributed generation contributes to oversupply, especially in the early afternoon, when there is greater solar production. At the same time, these systems are not subject to centralized dispatch by the ONS, unlike larger plants.
In her vote, Agnes da Costa acknowledged that MMGD influences the operation of the system. According to her, the energy injected by these systems reduces the gross demand observed by the SIN and contributes to oversupply at certain times of the day, precisely when centralized solar generation also injects energy into the grid.
The rapporteur also stated that the growth of distributed generation has caused unprecedented challenges for the reliability of the basic network, including reverse flows from distribution to transmission. MMGD surpassed the 45 GW mark in 2025, according to data cited in the vote.
Despite this, Agnes accepted the legal understanding of the Federal Attorney’s Office with Aneel and kept MMGD outside the scope of the rule. The justification is that the public consultation deals with the ordering of cuts made by the ONS in plants subject to centralized dispatch. As distributed micro and minigeneration is connected to the distribution network and is operated within the distributors, its inclusion would require specific regulatory treatment.
The rapporteur also left the so-called type 3 plants out of the norm for the same reason: they are not within the direct reach of the centralized dispatch carried out by the ONS. According to the vote, this does not prevent Aneel from dealing with rules for the operation of MMGD and these plants in the future.
WHY CUTS ARE NECESSARY
Curtailment is the mandatory shutdown or limitation of production of generating plants by the ONS, even when there are conditions to generate energy. The measure occurs because the electrical system needs to balance generation and consumption in real time.
When there is too much energy, overload at certain times or lack of transmission capacity to transport production, the operator reduces generation. For companies, this means less energy sold and difficulty fulfilling contracts. For the government, expanding compensation could put pressure on consumers’ electricity bills.
