With losses caused by last year’s energy crisis, energy distributors will receive R$ 10.5 billion in bank loans divided into two installments. The amount was approved today (15) by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), in an extraordinary meeting.
The funds will be lent by a pool (group) of public and private banks and aim to dilute the financial impacts of water scarcity in 2021 and reduce the high energy price this year. In return, consumers will pay the loan in installments, through a charge on the electricity bill that will be charged from 2023.
At this Tuesday’s meeting, Aneel also approved the release of the first installment, of R$ 5.3 billion. The money will be deposited in the Energy Development Account (CDE) and apportioned among the distributors by the Electric Energy Commercialization Chamber (CCEE), according to the loss of each company due to water scarcity.
The value of the first installment will cover BRL 2.33 billion in the deferral of electricity bill collections by distributors and BRL 1.68 billion in the bonus for consumers who saved energy in the second half of last year. BRL 790 million in energy imports will also be covered at the height of the water crisis, in July and August 2021; and R$540 million from the negative balance of tariff flags that collected less than necessary.
Estimated at R$ 5.2 billion, the second part of the loan will still undergo public consultation and there is no forecast of when it will be regulated by Aneel. This installment will cover the cost of the emergency auction for contracting energy from thermoelectric plants for supply as of May 1 of this year.
According to Aneel, the total term of the financing and the interest on the loan will still be defined with the banks that will participate in the operation. The agency expects the money to reach distributors in the first half of April.
At the beginning of February, Aneel’s technical area had suggested that the loan amount be BRL 10.8 billion: R$ 5.6 billion in the first installment and R$ 5.2 billion in the second. The agency’s board approved a slightly lower value, because the rains in the center-south raised the level of the reservoirs this year and reduced the damage.
provisional measure
The loan to distributors was authorized by Provisional Measure 1,078, published in December. The financing is intended to amortize the financial impact of the drought on the cash of companies in the electricity sector.
In January, a decree signed by President Jair Bolsonaro created the Water Scarcity Accountwhich will be used by CCEE to reimburse distributors.
embedded costs
In recent years, this is the third loan to the electricity sector paid by energy consumers. In 2014, banks lent R$ 21.2 billion to the CCEE to hold the readjustment that year and compensate for the loss to distributors. Through the Conta-ACR, built into the electricity bill, consumers paid R$34 billion, of which R$12.8 billion represented interest.
In 2020, around 60 distributors signed up to a R$ 14.8 billion financing to compensate for the losses caused by the covid-19 pandemic. The loan is being charged to consumers through the Covid Account until December 2025, with interest of 3.79% per year plus Interbank Deposit Certificate (CDI).
