A ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency) decided this Tuesday (24) to suspend power cuts due to non-payment for all urban and rural residences, in addition to services and activities considered essential, such as hospitals.
The measures, approved at an extraordinary meeting of the regulator's board held via videoconference, are valid for 90 days and were adopted due to the economic crisis caused by the new coronavirus pandemic.
During the meeting, directors also took other measures to ensure the safety of consumers and dealership employees, such as:
- Prioritization of telephone calls for urgent and emergency requests;
- Suspension of deadlines for requesting compensation for damage to equipment;
- Suspension of delivery of printed monthly invoices to consumers’ addresses;
- Allow distributors to carry out consumption readings at different intervals than usual or even not to carry out readings at all;
- Suspension of in-person services to the public;
- Preparation of specific contingency plans to cover hospitals and places used to treat the population;
- Suspension of unregistering families from the social tariff;
The Agency's general director, André Pepitone, said that there will still be a separate assessment, under discussion with the government, of additional measures to benefit low-income consumers.
“We were asked to evaluate the possibility of providing greater support to low-income consumers, and this will be addressed through government channels, with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Economy, with coordination from the Civil House,” stated the director.
According to Aneel, residential consumers account for almost 47,5% of energy distributors' revenue and today the level of default is 5%.
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