EN 
PT_BR 
The Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, stated this Thursday (26), in a public hearing in the Senate, that the extra fee on the electricity bill, charged through tariff flags, will undergo a new increase amid the biggest water crisis of the last 91 years.
“We will have to face the crisis head on. We're going to have to raise the flag. Let's ask the governors not to increase automatically, because they have a percentage. So, if the flag is raised, they end up making money based on the crisis and that is not interesting”, said Guedes.
The new value should be released by ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency) in the coming days and the expectation is that red flag 2 will be above R$ 11.00 for every 100 kWh consumed. The additional cost is currently R$ 9.49.
If confirmed, this will be the fourth increase carried out by the Federal Government in the value of the tariff flag in less than four months. As of April 30, the country was operating under the yellow flag, at a cost of R$ 1.34 for every 100 kWh.
Recently, the Agency opened a public consultation to evaluate with society the possibility of increasing the tariff value to R$ 11.50. The country's main concessionaires positioned themselves favorably.
Measurement package
This Thursday, the Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, also went public and announced that Brazil will give discounts on the electricity bills of residential consumers who save electricity from September 1st.
The Department will release more details about how the measure works at the beginning of next week. The proposal aims to reduce energy demand and avoid the risks of rationing and blackouts.
This week, the MME also issued a decree to reduce energy consumption in public buildings by up to 20% between September 1st of this year and April 1st, 2022.
Another sector that also gained rules to reduce the use of energy demand this week were free market industries – those that buy energy directly from the generator or supplier, without going through the distributor.
Water crisis
Brazil is currently experiencing the biggest water crisis in the last 91 years due to the historic drought that affects the main reservoirs in the Southeast and Center-West regions, which account for more than 70% of national hydropower generation.
Without water in the reservoirs, the Federal Government had to take measures to avoid the need for rationing, such as purchasing energy from neighboring countries and activating thermal plants, which in addition to causing more pollutants, also made the electricity bill of Brazilian families more expensive. . The value will be even higher in 2022.
In November, when the dry period ends and the rainy season begins, the MME predicts that the reservoirs in the regions Southeast and Midwest operate with less than 15% of capacity.
