The Consumer Protection and Defense Foundation (Procon-SP) notified the electricity distribution concessionaire Enel for the prolonged interruption of services on January 7th of this year, which left 150,000 properties in São Paulo without electricity. The measure is the first step in an inspection action, which can result in sanctions such as fines.
Since November 2023, Enel has been notified by the body four times.
Enel is responsible for distributing electricity in more than 20 cities in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, including the capital.
According to Procon, the situation repeats itself every time it rains, without effective actions being taken to reduce the problems, such as reducing the deadline for reestablishing the supply of electricity to affected consumers.
“For more than a year, the company has claimed that the problems are caused by severe weather events, with higher-than-expected winds; and also for more than a year there has been no news that any effective measures, whether engineering or operations, have been taken to, at the very least, speed up the resumption of services”, said, in a note, Luiz Orsatti Filho, executive director from Procon-SP.
Clarifications
He added that the claim that winds have been above normal can no longer be an acceptable response. “This stopped being a surprise element and became recurrent, as was already being warned,” he stated.
In the notification made to Enel, Procon-SP requests detailed clarification of the area and number of consumers impacted; on the measures adopted to resume service and how information was passed on to consumers.
The agency also asked for information on the compensation policy for consumers who remained without power for many hours in their homes and businesses. Enel has seven days to send clarifications to Procon.
