The bill for electricity consumers has an impact of R$ 500 billion, to be paid in the coming years. According to a survey by the technical group of Mines and Energy of the transition team, this will be the “legacy” left by a series of actions adopted by the current government.
According to the group’s executive coordinator, Mauricio Tolmasquim, the main impact is one of the consequences of the privatization of Eletrobras, with a cost of R$ 368 billion in the accounts. One of the amendments inserted by the parliamentarians in the project that approved the sale of the state-owned company in Congress obliges the government to buy energy from natural gas thermoelectric plants in the Northeast, North, Midwest and Southeast regions from 2026 onwards. “Far away places where there is no natural gas”, warned Tolmasquim, during a press conference at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB), in Brasília.
They also increased the gap in Conta-Covid, a loan made to the electricity sector during the covid-19 pandemic in the amount of R$ 23 billion; the Water Scarcity Account, a new BRL 6.6 billion loan made to the electricity sector to cover losses from the 2021 energy crisis; the emergency hiring of thermoelectric plants, carried out in October last year by the government, in the amount of R$ 39 billion; and the market reserve obligation with the contracting of Small Hydroelectric Power Plants (PCHs) in energy auctions, of R$ 55 billion, plus a demand made by Congress in the Eletrobras privatization project.
According to Tolmasquim, this will have to be paid by consumers during this government period that begins, but by other governments as well. “Today we have a phenomenon where the cost of generating electricity is very cheap, our sources are cheap, we have good natural resources, but the tariff that the consumer pays is exorbitant, one of the most expensive in the world. Now comes more pressure on the tariff and we have to act to resolve it,” he said.
The transition team will make suggestions to the new Minister of Mines and Energy to reduce these amounts, such as the termination of emergency contracts with thermoelectric plants and the review, with Congress, of the obligation to install this type of plant in distant places, far from the gas supply and consumption center. “We do not accept this as a ready-made dish. There is room for negotiation, actions to reduce this cost and the consumer is not impacted enormously”, he highlighted.
He also cited the rise of creation of subsidies in the sector, as for photovoltaic energy, “a highly competitive source”. This week, the Chamber of Deputies approved the extension, for another six months, of the deadline for the installation of photovoltaic energy microgenerators and minigenerators with exemption of fees for the use of the distribution grid to throw the electric energy in the grid. The exemption runs until 2045.
For Tomalquim, this type of action is the result of “the government’s complete failure to formulate public policies for the sector”, which led, for example, to the privatization of Eletrobras. “No country in the world has done this, which is selling amortized hydroelectric power plants, which does not generate a penny in the economy, and puts absurd power in a private group,” he said.
According to him, the expansion of the sector must go through the vision of energy transition, through sources such as solar and wind, but it is necessary to think about energy security and supply capacity in the future, which involves hydro energy, Eletrobras’ central role.
Likewise, the intention of the next government is to expand Petrobras’ refining capacity and reduce dependence on imported fuel and the impact of the exchange rate on the value of the product sold to Brazilians. “Always looking at this vision of energy transition that Petrobras is responsible, as all oil companies are, with the climate issue. It does not mean that it will cease to be profitable”, he said, explaining that part of the profits can be invested in other sectors that also bring revenue to the country.
In addition to issues in the electricity sector, the group cited problems related to the functioning of the State, the scrapping of regulatory agencies and companies, including Petrobras, and the incentive to illegal mining.
