The board of Aneel, Brazil's national electricity regulator, is discussing this Tuesday (6) in Brasilia whether to terminate the concession contract of Enel SP, the company that distributes power to the city of São Paulo and part of its metropolitan area. The meeting began at 9 a.m. at the agency's headquarters, and the forfeiture case is one of the ten main items on the agenda, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
Enel SP serves more than 8 million consumer units across 24 municipalities in São Paulo state, according to Aneel. The case was opened in April, six months ago, after a series of blackouts in the state capital. At the end of 2024, 2 million properties lost power due to distribution failures, Folha reported. The following year, the number rose to 4.4 million affected customers.
According to the agency's statement, inspectors concluded that the utility performed below satisfactory standards and below the average of other distributors during extreme weather events in 2023, 2024 and 2025, with a rise in outages lasting more than 24 hours, slow emergency response and failures in contingency planning and execution. The company submitted a recovery plan, but the technical staff deemed the measures insufficient.
Enel argued at the time of the blackouts that extreme and unpredictable weather events, aggravated by problems under the responsibility of public authorities, such as the lack of tree pruning and pole maintenance, caused the outages. In the decision that opened the case, Aneel rejected those arguments:
"A one-off improvement in indicators or in the response to specific events does not remove the characterization of inadequate service, especially given the recurrence and severity of the episodes analyzed," the agency's decision concluded.
How the case reached the board
The case reached the board after a period marked by the concessionaire's attempt to annul the discussion, according to Folha. In February, Aneel's president, Sandoval Feitosa, voted to recommend to the government that the contract be revoked, but the majority of directors decided to extend the analysis period to include events after the 2024 blackouts, which had triggered the initial proceeding.
If the board approves the forfeiture recommendation, the case goes to the Ministry of Mines and Energy. The final decision rests with the federal government, and the company can still appeal. For Enel, the contract that supplies Brazil's largest city is at stake. For consumers, nothing changes immediately: until the case is decided at the federal level, the utility remains obliged to operate the grid and answer for the quality of service.