The City of São Paulo filed a lawsuit this Wednesday (31) in TCU (Federal Court of Auditors) to request the immediate termination of the contract with Enel, the concessionaire responsible for the electricity distribution service in the city.
The request was made due to “successive failures in the provision of service” by the distributor, including those on November 3, 2023 and January 8 of this year, when thousands of properties were left without access to electricity due to storms that hit the capital and nearby cities.
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“The chaos, however, was not a direct consequence of the rain itself, but of the abrupt interruption of electricity, which paralyzed essential services and the daily activities of millions of people. Electricity was only actually restored a week later”, claims the City Hall, in the document sent to the TCU.
In the letter, the municipal administration expresses total dissatisfaction with the services provided by the concessionaire, in addition to concern about the lack of a contingency plan, which it classifies as “omission by the federal concessionaire” in an attempt to avoid responsibility for its actions.
“In the view that Enel has publicly expressed, power cuts are the fault of summer rains – always characterized as exceptional events, despite their constancy and regularity – and the city's trees, which – in the concessionaire's view – 'stubborn' in falling on the electricity networks during rain, as if the concessionaire had no responsibility for the management of trees entangled by energized wiring”, says the document.
The City Hall also criticized the lack of responses to the population and the municipal administration. “The events of that day also made it sadly clear that the concessionaire had no communication channels with consumers and the government, in addition to the absolute inefficiency of any contingency plans the concessionaire had in place to deal with more severe climate events in the city of São Paulo.”
Furthermore, the document highlights that, although Enel has legal authorization to manage urban trees that cause interference in the electricity grid, the company continues to classify blackouts as “extraordinary events”, in which a considerable portion of the population “suddenly finds itself in the dark, without electricity, for long periods of time”.
Sought by the report of the Canal Solar, Enel said it would not comment on the statements.
ANEEL was sought
Before reaching the agency, the City of São Paulo reported that it had requested the ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency) the cancellation of the city's concession contract with Enel. “However, to date, there has been no news of any measure aimed at inspection,” the municipal administration reported.
In a note, the ANEEL stated that it has been working to improve the distribution segment's response to highly severe climate events, with meetings with mayors, the state government and distributors to coordinate actions to be taken.
The Agency also said that it has initiated an inspection process with Enel and that it is analyzing the distributor's statement to apply the appropriate sanctions. "The Agency, therefore, has taken all measures within the scope of regulation and inspection so that the electric power sector responds to the challenges imposed by highly severe climate events."
