Electrobras: The Brazilian Senate approves the privatization of the largest electricity company in Latin America | International

The Federal Senate on Thursday evening approved the interim measure that allows the privatization of Eletrobras, the Brazilian state-owned company responsible for around 40% of transport and 30% of electricity production in the country – it is the most large company in the country’s electricity sector. Latin America. The project approved by the senators will cost public funds between 40,000 and 66,000 million reais (about 8,000 million dollars), according to a group of 45 entities from the energy and industrial sectors. And the profits would be 61,000 million reais (about 12,000 million dollars).

These institutions, which have joined the United for Energy movement, estimate that the final consumer’s electricity bill will increase by around 10%. Jair Bolsonaro’s government, in turn, says the electricity bill will be lower, but has not presented data to show how much the reduction would be. Prior to the latest changes to the interim measure, the estimate was that the drop would be around 7%.

The project has undergone a series of modifications, many of which are unrelated to the original theme of the text. The inclusion of the so-called “jabuti” in Congress has sparked a wave of criticism from politicians to experts. From now on, the project returns to the Chamber of Deputies, which will have to approve it in record time, five days, including two at the end of the week. The measure expires on June 22, and if it is not voted, it will have no validity. On Thursday evening, the Speaker of the House, Arthur Lira, called a sitting of the House for Monday 21, with the aim of approving it.

The green light from the Senate was passed with a result of 42 votes in favor and 37 against. Despite the tight results, it was a victory for the Bolsonaro government and for the Minister of the Economy, Paulo Guedes, who since the start of his mandate has been selling investors an ambitious privatization plan, which has not yet taken off. . The parties that voted against, like the Workers’ Party – PT and Podemos, must go to court because they understood that there were no constitutional requirements for the treatment of the proposal, such as urgency necessary for the emission of a measurement like this one.

Among the critics of the measure, the assessment was that the project was half liberal, half interventionist. At the same time as it authorizes the federal government to reduce its stake in the company from 61% to 45% of the shares, it constitutes a kind of market reserve for thermal power stations – the most polluting and the most expensive – in areas where gas pipelines are non-existent or scarce, such as the north, northeast and center-west. “He’s a monster,” said Senator Tasso Jereissati of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party – PSDB.

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For comparison, a megawatt hour of renewable energy, like solar and wind power, costs around 100 reais (around $ 20). That of thermoelectric power stations, between 320 and 350 reais (about $ 69). “The premises used by the government that there will be a reduction in prices were wrong. It is only with the use of thermoelectric power stations that we can conclude that energy will be more expensive, ”says the coordinator of the Climate and Society Institute, Roberto Kishinami. However, the bill for this readjustment will only appear in three or four years, when the thermal plants start operating. “By then, people will even have forgotten what was decided today,” said researcher and former president of the National Electricity System Operator (ONS) Luiz Eduardo Barata.

The text approved last month by the Chamber had already encountered resistance from the electricity sector and consumer representatives. In the Senate, it was felt that there had been an even greater setback. “This worsens what was already bad and foresees new costs for Brazilian consumers,” the Energy Union said in a statement. Filipe Soares, one of the group’s spokespersons, told EL PAÍS that the MP’s initial text had good arguments, but was deconstructed in Congress. “We were horrified by what was passed in the House and what the Senate is changing. Putting thermoelectric power stations in the northern region is unnecessary. It is a region which has more energy production than consumption ”, he declared.

In the opinion approved by the Senate, the rapporteur Marcos Rogério of the Democratic Party – DEM maintained the obligation to contract 6,000 megawatts of natural gas power plants. Spending on thermal energy will eventually increase even more in the country. Last month, the National Electric Power Agency – Aneel authorized an increase in the energy tariff due to low reservoir levels due to lack of precipitation in the Southeast and Midwest regions. “With the capitalization, we will restore to Eletrobras its investment capacity”, defended Rogério.

In the expert assessment, the changes in the MP demonstrated interference from the Legislature in an area that depends on planning and is constantly regulated. “It is not reasonable for the Legislature to plan the electricity sector in the country,” said researcher Barata. An amendment presented by the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, still determined that the president of the ONS (national operator of the electricity system), which is a private non-profit association, must be examined by the Senate.

The inclusion of this issue in the WP that dealt with the privatization of Eletrobras is another example of external issues that ended up being discussed outside the initial context of the project. “There has been a break in the governance structure of the system,” said the executive director of the Institute for Consumer Defense (Idec), Teresa Liporace.

The summary on the amount of foreign affairs approved was such that the leader of the women’s group in the Senate, Simone Tebet, of the Brazilian Democratic Movement – MDB, ironically summed up, using various popular diktats, Thursday’s session on her networks: “ The whole herd passes into the deputy Eletrobras. The fauna is complete: There is an ox on the line (allusion to railroad motorists when they saw an ox on the railway line and saw the communication cut), a jabuti in the tree ( allusion to something impossible, unusual situation), a goat in the room (allusion to an uncomfortable situation), a dose for an elephant (implies that you have to be very patient) and a stubborn as a mule. But what else are there wolves in sheep disguise. The truth is that millions of Brazilians go pro brejo (another popular dictation which means a situation will get worse), due to the rising bill ”. Idec’s energy and sustainability program coordinator, Clauber Leite, followed the same line. “Today we talked about everything except the privatization of Eletrobras.”

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