In a unanimous decision issued this Wednesday, April 22nd, the board of directors of ANEEL The Brazilian National Electric Energy Agency (ANS) approved the opening of a 45-day public consultation that delegates to distributors the responsibility of conducting mandatory audits to identify technical irregularities.
The proposed new regulation stipulates that distribution companies must carry out technical inspections within a specified period of 90 days, with the aim of detecting power increases in distributed generation plants that disregard the original specifications.
If the irregularity is confirmed, the distributor will have the power to immediately suspend the generation unit without, however, cutting off the power supply to the rest of the consumer unit.
The inspections will focus especially on situations where the discrepancy between the authorized power and the power actually injected into the grid is more pronounced.
For property owners identified as being in violation of regulations, the consequences include retroactive billing for up to 36 billing cycles, with the appropriate monetary updates, as well as the disregard of any energy injected after the fraud is detected.
The Director-General of ANEELSandoval Feitosa classified the unauthorized technical modifications as "police cases" that should be severely penalized with civil liability for the agents involved.
The core of the regulatory concern lies in the practice of expanding generation capacity without informing the distributor, improperly maintaining classification in the "GD I" category.
This system guarantees systems whose access opinion was filed by January 2023 the acquired right to full compensation of credits and exemption from the "Fio B" fee until the year 2045.
By increasing power without authorization, the owner avoids the network usage costs that would be applied to a new access request, thus, according to the agency, harming the equality between consumers and expanding cross-subsidies.
Rapporteur's arguments
The rapporteur for the proposal, Director Gentil Nogueira, based his vote on the urgency of preserving the stability of the SIN (National Interconnected System).
According to Nogueira, the accelerated expansion of photovoltaic generation has generated increasing impacts on the balance between load and generation, requiring the ONS (National System Operator) to adopt exceptional measures, such as generation cuts during periods of low load.
Nogueira highlighted that data from the ONS (National System Operator) points to the existence of an "invisible generation"—distributed generation systems not fully reflected in the registration databases.
It is estimated that this underrepresentation reaches between 11,8 GW and 14,6 GW of installed equivalent capacity, which weakens load forecasting and compromises the country's operational planning.
To curb oversizing, the rapporteur proposes redefining the concept of installed power, adopting as a reference the nominal alternating current power at the output of the inverters, eliminating the loophole that allowed for easy expansions after the initial connection.
In Nogueira's view, with this change, the ANEEL It seeks to provide greater efficiency and predictability to the processes of connecting and monitoring the sector.
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Answers of 5
I completely disagree with Aneel (Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency). If someone had the right to increase production before the law changed, they should have the capacity to do so, because every year there is new and more efficient equipment. But the most important thing for an agency that funds the rampant corruption in the system, which includes the Batista brothers, is to take from the people the crumbs that still remain. It's time to focus on off-grid energy and abandon this gang.
This practice is completely wrong. ANEELNo more power should be given to the distributors! This finding should be addressed by the distributors themselves. ANEELUnder no circumstances should administrative police power be delegated to any concessionaire company!
I wanted that too. ANEEL This would solve the problem that utility companies are creating by charging customers normal bills even when they have remaining credits, and instead charge fines in favor of the customers. Because here in Bahia, I have many customers with this problem of having too much credit, and the utility company charges the bill without offsetting the credits. Since they are charging fines, they also have to do the same thing in favor of the customer.
I am certain there will be abuse on the part of the concessionaire and it will clog the judiciary because the concessionaire's inspection should simply be accompanied by a commission comprised of consumer representatives, a representative of the distributor, and a representative of the... ANEEL Would only the above be fair? How can a consumer contest a technical report from an engineer paid by the distributor itself if they don't have the same financial resources to hire a private engineer?
Once again, the government is using its power to harm those who are producing energy for FREE for the utility company.
We pay for absurdly expensive equipment, we give free energy to the grid, which doesn't need to be turned on, thermoelectric plants, we build more hydroelectric plants, but without them many, I mean, a few holders of power, will lose money. What profit does a thermoelectric plant generate? It's better for it to be running and polluting than for the citizen who paid taxes, bought overpriced equipment with their own money, and is considered a "criminal" for producing more. Ban solar panels once and for all – that's the government's dream – so they can spend billions on building hydroelectric plants that wouldn't need to exist and that, even if they did, would cost 1/3 of the price, in addition to the environmental impact. But what can you expect from those who used diesel ships and devastated part of the forest for the COP?