Enel, an electricity concessionaire that serves 24 municipalities in the São Paulo metropolitan region, including the capital, has not yet been informed of the court decision that requires the regularization of electricity supply within 12 hours, under penalty of a fine of R$200,000 per hour. A report updated by the company shortly before noon this Saturday shows that 448 thousand customers remain in the dark, which represents 5.3% of the total coverage area.
Last night, Judge Gisele Valle Monteiro da Rocha, of the 31st Civil Court of the Central Forum, responded to an injunction filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office of São Paulo, ordering the company to immediately restore service. The general time frame is 12 hours, but there is a list of beneficiaries who must be served in less time, 4 hours. These include hospitals and health units, registered electricity dependents, police stations, prisons and security equipment, nurseries and schools, in addition to water supply and sanitation systems, such as Sabesp facilities.
“Enel Distribuição São Paulo has not been informed of the decision and continues to work without interruption to restore the energy supply to the rest of the population affected by the climate event,” the company said in a statement. She also points out that the map of service interruptions provided by its official channels represents an “x-ray of the moment” and that there may be properties that entered the account due to subsequent problems, not directly related to the storm that hit the state on Wednesday 9 and left more than 2 million establishments without electricity.
Parliament and the Defender’s Office accuse the company of acting in an “inadequate, inefficient and discontinuous” manner in providing the service. The judge accepted the request for an injunction and, imposing a fine for delays in regularization, declared that “the current crisis is not an isolated episode” and that “the history of non-compliance and deficiencies is notorious, particularly during rainy periods and at the end of the year, when the structure of the service should be strengthened and, however, repeatedly proves insufficient.”
The judge also ordered the dealership to provide a clear, accurate and up-to-date restoration estimate by area and event, using all of its channels, such as the website, app, social media and telephone exchange, in addition to ensuring that the service channels operate without technological restrictions that prevent consumers from recording power outages.
In addition to the lack of energy, the power outage caused repercussions. Water supply remains compromised in neighborhoods of the capital and in municipalities across the metropolitan region, as pumping systems depend on electricity supply. Sabesp reported that full normalization may take up to 48 hours after restarting. At airports, after more than 400 flights were affected since Wednesday, operations began to stabilize this Friday.
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