The TCU (Federal Court of Auditors) accepted this Thursday (15) the request for an appeal with suspensive effect made by the main associations that represent the GD (distributed generation) sector against Ruling 3063/2020. The decision was made by the Minister of the TCU, Aroldo Cedraz. With this, the recommendation of the TCU itself that the ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency) to present a schedule for completing the review of REN 482 (Normative Resolution No. 482/2012) was suspended.
According to ABGD (Brazilian Association of Distributed Generation), with the decision the next step will be to contact Serur (Secretariat of Resources) and request that the merits of the Writ of Mandamus be analyzed. Carlos Evangelista, president of the Association, explains that the decision made is extremely important for the sector. According to him, ANEEL, pressured by the TCU, was on the verge of finalizing REN 482 even before the vote on Bill 5829, which creates the GD Legal Framework in the Chamber of Deputies.
“This was bad, because the entire market expects regulatory legal stability for the sector and we will only achieve this with the approval of the bill. With the decision, ANEEL There is enough time to discuss the project further and wait for it to be processed in the Chamber, with the ultimate goal of creating a law for the entire sector,” he said.
On Wednesday last week (7), ABDG, the ABSOLAR (Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy) and INEL (National Institute of Clean Energy) met in a hearing at the TCU to support the arguments in favor of analyzing the appeal filed by the industry associations. In their understanding, the TCU could never have given a regulatory bias ruling to ANEEL.
Read more: ABGD filed a writ of mandamus with the STF against the TCU Ruling
Following the TCU’s decision, the Agency presented an action plan to update the DG compensation system, proposing a draft regulation with the new rules and committed to publishing the new resolution by June 30. According to Bárbara Rubim, Vice President of Distributed Generation at ABSOLAR, ANEEL was using this decision as a justification to accelerate the completion of the REN 482 update, thus ensuring that there would be no time for the approval of the GD Legal Framework in the National Congress to occur.
“The decision is suspended and this means that our sector has more time for us to press and fight for the arrival of the Legal Framework, which ensures the benefits that we bring to Brazil”, highlights the lawyer.
For Lucas Pimentel, secretary of regulatory affairs at INEL, the order issued by the TCU judge can be considered a victory not only for distributed generation, but for all the associations involved and Brazilian citizens themselves.
“The decision recognizes the legitimacy of sectoral associations to appear as parties in processes at the TCU, enabling the defense of the respective sectors (…) We hope that the TCU Plenary, when analyzing the review appeals, corrects the mistakes and defects in Ruling 3.063/2020 , which should not have even been issued, due to the TCU’s illegitimacy in considering the matter”, he stated.
The TCU is the body responsible for overseeing the formulation and implementation of public policies, regulation and privatizations in the electricity sector. In addition, the body is also responsible for overseeing the management, business and ventures of federal state-owned companies in the electricity sector. The report by Canal Solar contacted the ANEEL through the press office and until the closing of this report, there was no response.
Answers of 3
Excellent content and very informative for those working in the sector. Congratulations
This decision is very important and will strengthen our profession.
There is no going back to wind and photovoltaic renewable energy in Brazil, we have been doing pioneering work for more than 10 years to encourage the use of this energy by ordinary citizens, urban and rural, it is known that energy income far exceeds several activities , therefore, it is necessary that the excess energy be remunerated for the microproducer, especially the small farmer who opted for photovoltaic energy due to his growing impoverishment in the countryside with almost no support from agricultural cooperatives, mainly in RS. BUY RENEWABLE ENERGY NOW!!!