Rapporteur Agnes da Costa backed recommending early termination of the concession, but a request for more time to review the case halted the board vote. No final decision to end the contract has been made.
Brazil’s electricity regulator ANEEL has postponed a decision on whether to recommend early termination of Enel São Paulo’s concession. On October 6, director Gentil Nogueira requested more time to review the case, interrupting the vote. Rapporteur Agnes da Costa had voted in favour of recommending that the concession be revoked.
The vote is not itself a termination of the contract. If ANEEL’s board ultimately backs the recommendation, Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy would decide whether to end the agreement. The current concession runs until June 2028. The company serves 8.8 million consumer units in 24 municipalities, including São Paulo city.
In her reasoning, da Costa cited Enel’s inspection record: seven of 11 performance plans agreed since 2019 were rated unsatisfactory. Three assessments concerned continuity of electricity supply and also received negative evaluations. Regulators had earlier found the company’s recovery plan insufficient after outages left millions without power.
Enel disputes the regulator’s findings. Company representative Thiago de Barros Correia said investment had risen by more than 73% and emergency-response indicators had improved to above the national average. He asked that the case be closed or that authorities assess whether the company’s departure would serve the public interest.
Eduardo de Vasconcelos, representing São Paulo’s electricity-industry workers’ union, accused city mayor Ricardo Nunes of inadequate tree maintenance, saying trees were involved in 60% of incidents. Several mayors in Greater São Paulo also spoke in support of the company.
The administrative proceeding to assess possible revocation of the concession opened on April 7. The regulator cited slow emergency response, outages lasting more than 24 hours, and deficiencies in planning and carrying out contingency plans. On August 11, the board rejected Enel’s request to reverse the opening of the proceeding. On September 29, it denied the company’s request for an independent technical assessment and closed the evidence-gathering phase.
In September, Brazil’s Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) recommended that ANEEL and the ministry examine alternatives to revocation and the effects of a possible termination. They were asked to consider whether other operators could take over the service, how to manage the transition, compensation for concession assets, and potential tariff increases or supply disruptions. The court ordered the agencies to present a timetable of next steps within 60 days.