For those who have been without power for three days, the lack of power isn’t just an inconvenience. São Paulo residents report losses due to loss of food, including entire Christmas dinners, and problems maintaining medical care that depends on supplies. On Friday, the São Paulo Public Prosecutor’s Office and the state public defender’s office filed a lawsuit demanding that Enel, the concessionaire responsible for service in most of the metropolitan area, “immediately” normalize supply, or face a fine of BRL 200,000 per hour.
- Failure in SP: Christmas turkey, lunch boxes and grilled meats go to waste after days without power
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This Friday at 8 p.m., around 640,000 homes were still without electricity. The outage began last Wednesday morning, in the middle of a historic windstorm – meaning thousands of customers spent three days that Saturday with their service cut. Enel claims that “the climatic event has caused serious damage to the electricity infrastructure” and has not yet set deadlines for stabilizing the scenario.
At the peak of the problem, 2.2 million addresses were without electricity, or 25% of total active connections. There was a cascading effect on traffic, water supplies and the airline network, with hundreds of canceled flights and chaos at airports across the country – in a scenario that only eased throughout Friday.
But heavy rain which hit the capital on Friday afternoon made the situation even worse, with restored properties once again facing outages. The extratropical cyclone that caused the strong gusts of midweek has already moved away, but another front of instability raises fears of new storms throughout this weekend.
In the public civil action filed on Friday, prosecutor Denilson de Souza Freitas asks Enel to resume supply to all affected units since December 9 or, at most, within four hours after learning of the court’s decision. In addition to urgent reconnection, the company is required to provide clear and precise estimates on the return of service. If the concessionaire does not comply with the determination, the MPSP requests the establishment of an hourly fine of R$200,000.
In another front of pressure on the dealership, Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB) accused Enel of lying about the number of cars on the streets during the emergency operation. According to Nunes, Enel’s claim that there are 1,500 teams on the ground does not correspond to the reality monitored by the SmartSampa system.
— I can categorically say that this is not true — the mayor said, citing tracking of the dealership’s vehicle license plates with cameras located throughout the city, which reportedly indicated that on Thursday, fewer than 40 company vehicles would be circulating in the capital.
Faced with the repetition of power cuts – there were also critical episodes in 2023 and 2024 – Nunes joined forces with Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) and defended an intervention at Enel, as well as the start of the contract expiration process:
— The time has come to stop and turn this page. We need to discuss with the federal government the possibility of going beyond this limit.
Asked about a possible intervention at the concessionaire, the vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin, declared that the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), responsible for regulating and supervising the sector, has the duty to act “rigorously”. He commented on the case after attending a seminar in the capital São Paulo on Friday.
— This is the role of the agency, as regulator and supervisor. I hope this will be strictly enforced,” he said.
Until a solution comes, residents suffer losses. Lawyer Venâncio Pereira, who lives in the Saúde neighborhood, in the southern zone, paid R$400 at the beginning of the week to prepare a set of lunch boxes for his family throughout the month. Everything was stored in the freezer, but it should not survive dozens of hours with the equipment turned off.
— I still have turkey, meat and sausages for Christmas — he said.
On the networks, information is spreading and users from São Paulo are showing the list of foods thrown in the trash after having spoiled due to lack of refrigeration. In one of them, displaying a Christmas turkey, a woman says she wants to cry seeing the waste of food. “Thank you, Enel,” he wrote.
Maria Sofia Araújo Freiria, 12, had to go down 14 flights of stairs on Thursday to arrive at the Hospital das Clínicas. A kidney patient, the young girl is on the transplant list and cannot go more than 24 hours without dialysis. The race to the HC was accompanied by the mother, Daylyana Araújo, 42 years old, who was trying to contact Enel to emphasize the need to restore energy to the family property, in Mooca. Sofia can usually do the treatment at home, while sleeping, with the machine paid for by the plan plugged into the outlet.
— At night she prayed and said: “Lord, I know there are many people in need. But just send me light and I don’t ask for anything else” — recalls Daylyana. — We spent 50 days hospitalized between August and October. We got the equipment from HC, via a deal, and returned home with a better quality of life.
Event producer Luiz Felipe Lima, in turn, is the primary caregiver for his elderly parents and has also experienced moments of despair. At 85, his mother suffered two strokes and was bedridden for two years, under the care of her son – for the last few days, in the dark. To make matters worse, the electric bed got stuck in a position that made it difficult for the elderly woman to feed herself.
— There are three days without electricity, and we call Enel and can only talk to a damn robot, which does not even direct us to an operator, — he told the g1 portal. (João Sorima Neto and Rafael Garcia collaborated)
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