The National Congress resumed its activities this week after the recess period. With the return of parliamentarians, the expectation for the vote on PL 5829, which aims to create the Legal Framework for DG (Distributed Generation) in Brazil, has returned to the surface among professionals in the solar energy sector.
However, according to information from ABSOLAR (Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy), the House will be focused, in the coming weeks, on discussing other agendas, such as improving the electoral process, which has a validity period for analysis, and discussions involving tax reform, which is one of the Federal Government's priority agendas.
“This means that, unfortunately, we have no prospects of the project being discussed and voted on, at least, in the next two weeks (…) Possibly, once these two items on the agenda are overcome, we will be able to bring the project back to the plenary of the Chamber”, assessed Bárbara Rubim, vice president of Distributed Generation at ABSOLAR.
The text, authored by deputy Silas Câmara (Republicanos/AM) and reported by deputy Lafayette Andrada (Republicanos/MG), despite being discussed with society for almost two years, has been entering the and leaving the agenda without being voted on by the parliamentarians who make up the Legislative Branch.
In total, the document has already been discussed 11 times in 2021. Among the factors that explain the delay in eventual approval are: political divisions within the House regarding the matter and the hospitalization of rapporteur Lafayette, diagnosed with Covid-19, weeks before the start of the recess period.
The project proposal seeks to offer more legal and regulatory security for the sustainable growth of the Brazilian electricity sector. The text basically extends the collection of charges and tariffs for the use of transmission and distribution systems to micro and mini energy generators (See the rapporteur's proposal here).
In the opinion of experts linked to the renewable sector, approval of the document is necessary nowadays, given the risks of energy shortages for the population as a result of the current water crisis and others that may occur in the country.
Public Hearing
One week before the recess period, the Chamber's Consumer Protection Committee, chaired by Deputy Celso Russomanno (Republicanos/SP), accepted a request, at the request of Deputy Gilson Marques (NOVO/SC), for the inclusion of three guests in the public hearings of the Ministry.
The meetings aim to discuss the impacts of PL 5829 on electricity consumers. The guests included were Marcos Madureira, president of ABRADEE (Brazilian Association of Electricity Distributors); Bernardo Bezerra, regulatory director at Omega Energia; and deputy Felipe Rigoni (PSB/ES).
“We are going to have a second public hearing, which will take place in August. As we are now returning from recess, this week I will decide the agenda for the month and I will schedule this second stage of the hearing”, Russomanno informed the Canal Solar in the early afternoon of this Tuesday (3).
