Aid to energy distributors could cost BRL 4.5 billion

The improvement in the reservoirs of hydroelectric plants in recent months may cause the financial assistance to the electricity sector to drop to R$ 4.5 billion.

The values ​​are still being analyzed, but, according to the Broadcast (Grupo Estado’s real-time news system), the operation should be far below what was initially forecast, around R$ 15 billion.

There are, however, those who believe that it is necessary to wait for the end of the rainy season, in April, when it will be possible to have more precision of the conditions of energy generation and the amounts collected by the additional fee charged on the electricity bills.

Current calculations are based on the 2018 hydrological scenario, which is considered similar to the current one.

The operation was regulated on Friday (15). The document signed by President Jair Bolsonaro does not detail amounts or payment terms, but indicates which costs will have to be covered with the funds to be raised with financial institutions, through a dialogue with the BNDES.

The details will be analyzed by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel). Only after this process, the resources will be released to the distributors.

readjustment

The amount should ease the readjustments in electricity bills this year, as it postpones the transfer of the costs of emergency measures adopted to avoid blackouts and even energy rationing in the midst of the worst water crisis in 91 years.

The numbers analyzed by the bodies responsible for managing the electricity sector, however, show a large discrepancy in relation to those presented by energy distributors in recent weeks.

The companies maintain that, until October, there was an outstanding liability of R$ 14 billion related to the water crisis – which were not covered by the extra tariff on the electricity bill.

The differences in the calculations and the definition of the amount to guarantee the financial balance of the concessions must be analyzed during the process at Aneel. The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.