Even in a scenario of economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the accounts of the country's main electricity distributors showed profits that were almost worth billions, according to balance sheets released by the companies themselves over the last few weeks. Grupo Energisa, for example, announced on the evening of last Thursday (13) that it had a consolidated net profit of R$873,3 million in the first quarter of this year. This represents a growth of 50,1% compared to the same period in 2020.
Another distributor that recorded large revenues in the first quarter was CPFL Energia, with net profit of R$961 million and an increase of 6,3% compared to the same period of the previous year. The result was achieved, above all, due to the company's good performance in wind energy generation and the recovery of energy sales in the concession area.
Copel also saw its net profit rise. There were R$795 million in the first three months of the year, an increase of 55,6% compared to the same period in 2020, according to a document sent by the company to the market on May 7th. Disregarding the entity's “Discontinued Operation”, the figure drops to R$759,2 million, an increase of 50,5%.
The distributor Equatorial Energia, in turn, made a profit of R$401 million in the first quarter and achieved an increase of 7% compared to the same period of the previous year. The balance sheet is contained in the document sent to the market by the company last Wednesday (12).
Among the large distributors surveyed by Canal Solar, Enel-SP was the only one that showed a drop in profits when comparing the first quarters of 2021 with 2020. Even so, only in January, February and March of this year R$ 136,5 million were collected in net form by the company. In 2020, the amount was 12% higher (R$ 155,2 million).
According to ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency), the public electricity distribution service is carried out in Brazil by concessionaires, licensees and designated companies. Currently, the country has 52 concessionaires, 52 licensees and one designated company operating, totaling 105 agents operating in the distribution market, including the public, private and mixed economy sectors.
Analysis of the numbers
According to Bernardo Marangon, an expert in the electricity markets sector, the balance sheets presented by the distributors show that the companies are healthy and have well-balanced accounts, despite the pandemic. According to him, the fact that they continue to have positive balances during this period shows how well they are protected by regulation. “This is not absurd, because in other countries the distribution model operates within the principle of natural monopoly,” he explained.
“So, that’s why there are mechanisms for tariff adjustment and review. Despite the natural monopoly, ANEEL seeks to create competition between distributors in the search for greater efficiency and quality in the distribution service. However, in critical moments, where there are risks, ANEEL also seeks ways to protect these institutions,” Marangon highlighted.
Comments (1)
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the concessionaires may be fine with their finances, but it is the population who are paying for it;
the concessionaires should invest more in energy generation so that its consumption increases, allowing the population to modernize their homes and, yes, make a profit with the increase in consumption and not with an increase in costs for the population... with an energy cost cheaper “residential”; This is another point, while the industry and transport sector, which are the largest energy consumers (60%), pays less than R$0,50 cents per kWh, the residential sector, which consumes 9% of the energy produced, pays R$1,34 .9,40 per kWh (green flag) in the red flag it is R$ XNUMX per kWh; exploitation with those who cannot complain or defend themselves from this abuse, so it is easy to make a profit