Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency) requested the release of additional funding from the Minister of Mines and Energy (MME), Alexandre Silveira, to finance the creation and maintenance of regional administrative units of the agency, which should support the inspection carried out on the services of Enel Distribuição, in São Paulo.
The request comes after power supply interruptions caused by extreme weather events hit the city on December 10, 2025, leaving thousands of consumers without power for several days.
In the request formally sent to Silveira, the general director of Aneel, Sandoval de Araujo Feitosa, affirms that there is no budget forecast for 2026 capable of supporting the new regional structures.
Aneel, like virtually all federal regulatory agencies, suffers from budget cuts every year, finding itself short of money to provide basic services.
The agency’s plan is to keep the additional service in operation until the end of summer, in March next year, a period which usually concentrates the occurrence of extreme events.
Without detailing the values or the number of units that will be created, Feitosa requests that the MME work with the Civil House, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Budget to make the additional resources viable.
All files were contacted by the report, but did not respond until this report was published.
Aneel began monitoring the climate chaos that caused the São Paulo shutdown on December 8, before the situation worsened, by monitoring distributors Enel SP, Elektro and EDP SP, which operate in the affected concession areas of the state.
According to the agency, on December 11 and 12, after meetings with distributors from São Paulo and other states, 76 teams specialized in network reconstruction and pole replacement were sent, from concessionaires such as Enel CE, Enel RJ, Elektro, CPFL, Light and Cemig, to support Enel SP’s operations.
On December 16, it was decided to create regional administrative units, initially focusing on the state of São Paulo. Servers have already been temporarily designated to focus exclusively on monitoring dealer actions during the summer period.
“We ratify the request for support of this Ministry (MME) before the Civil House, the Ministries of Finance and Planning and Budget, for the need for a budgetary supplement to allow the creation of the regional offices of Aneel, given that there was no provision for this expense in the agency’s budget for the 2026 fiscal year,” Sandoval states, in an official letter.
Relations between Alexandre Silveira and Aneel have been strained for some time, following the minister’s public criticism that the agency had not reacted to the Enel SP situation, despite his repeated requests.
As shown LeafSandoval refuted the minister’s statements. On Friday (19), Feitosa sent a letter to Minister Alexandre Silveira, in which he clarified that on nine occasions, between 2023 and 2025, he officially informed the MME of the measures taken regarding Enel SP.
“All the measures mentioned by this ministry, as well as the updates regarding the negotiations that took place, have been reported and reported,” Feitosa said.
The new open process to define the destination of the concession, said the agency’s general director, must be carried out urgently, “given the seriousness of the case.”
In November, companies and entities representing energy consumers in São Paulo, members of Conselpa (Enel SP Consumer Council), declared themselves “neutral” in relation to the request for early renewal of the distributor’s concession, which could be extended for another 30 years.
The Enel concessionaire, responsible for the supply of electricity to São Paulo and 23 municipalities in the metropolitan region, has accumulated convictions in court for the damage caused to businesses and residents due to the successive power cuts that have hit the concession area since 2023.
The problem repeated itself again on the 10th, when another power outage left more than 2 million properties in the dark simultaneously.
The recurrence of problems threatens Enel and led Minister Alexandre Silveira to declare on Tuesday (16) that he would begin the process of terminating the contract with the concessionaire, a banner defended for some time by the Mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), and Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans).
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