Brazil’s national electricity regulator, Aneel, has upheld a proceeding that could lead to the cancellation of Enel’s concession to distribute power in São Paulo. The agency’s board rejected Enel’s appeal on Tuesday, confirming that the process launched in April to evaluate potential contract termination will continue.
The decision follows a comprehensive review of Enel’s performance during a severe weather event on December 10, 2025, which left approximately 4.2 million homes and businesses without electricity—about 52% of Enel São Paulo’s customer base. At the peak of the outage, around 2 million customers were simultaneously without power.
Aneel’s technical staff found that Enel’s emergency response was inadequate. An analysis showed that, on December 11, 2025, only 10% of the utility’s mobilized workforce remained in field operations during nighttime hours, while 60% worked regular business shifts. For the most critical cases, the initial dispatch of repair crews took up to 45 hours.
These shortcomings contributed to a pattern of regulatory sanctions. Aneel reported that Enel has accumulated over R$320 million in fines and undergone nine performance improvement plans, seven of which were deemed unsatisfactory—a failure rate of 78%. Notable penalties include a R$16.2 million fine in 2021, a R$95.9 million fine in 2022, and a R$165.8 million fine following a November 2023 blackout. As of the regulator’s latest assessment, R$261 million of these fines remain unpaid due to court suspensions.
Enel contested Aneel’s methodology, arguing that the regulator’s calculation of power restoration—based on the share of customers reconnected within 24 hours during the storm’s simultaneous peak—understated its performance. The utility claimed that using a different baseline, the total number of customers affected over the event’s duration, would show an 80.2% reconnection rate, just above Aneel’s 80% threshold.
Aneel’s relator, Fernando Mosna, acknowledged the discrepancy but maintained that even if Enel’s figure were accepted, other deficiencies—such as crew allocation, productivity, delayed repairs, and prolonged outages—justified keeping the proceeding alive. The federal prosecutor’s office linked to Aneel reached the same conclusion.
The process remains pending a final recommendation from Aneel to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which holds the authority to approve contract termination. Minister Alexandre Silveira has publicly backed the move, urging the agency to advance the case.
Enel’s director Agnes Maria de Aragão da Costa informed the company on August 7 that it had ten days to submit its final arguments, a deadline that expires on August 18. Enel has stated it will continue pursuing “competent instances” to challenge Aneel’s findings, without specifying which forums it intends to approach.
The case underscores the growing tension between regulators and privatized utilities in Brazil over service reliability, especially as extreme weather events become more frequent.