Brazil Authorizes Power Bill Increases of Up to 16%

The electricity sector regulatory agency (Aneel, Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica) has completed a review of electricity charges in four states in the Northeastern region of Brazil and decided to authorize several increases.

Aneel authoritizes increases in four states in Northeast
Aneel, electricity, power,
Benedito Mendonça


Brazil Authorizes Power Bill Increases of Up to 16%
Electricity


The electricity sector regulatory agency (Aneel, Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica) has completed a review of electricity charges in four states in the Northeastern region of Brazil and decided to authorize several increases.


The raises include 10.96% for the Companhia Energética do Maranhão (Cemar); 16.47% for the Companhia Energética do Piauí­ (Cepisa); 14.26% for the Sociedade Anônima de Eletrificação da Paraí­ba (Saelpa); and 7.21% for the Companhia Energética de Alagoas (Ceal).


The new charges, which become effective this Sunday, August 28, will affect 217 municipalities in Maranhão, 233 in Piauí­, 216 in Paraí­ba and 102 in Alagoas.


The Brazilian Association of Electric Power Distributors (Abradee) calculates that the electric sector will pile up a record of public and private investments in 2005, around US$ 2.54 billion (5.98 billion reais). This amount is nearly 60% more than what was invested in 2004: US$ 1.58 billlion (3.74 billion reais).


A great part of the funds, US$ 1.0l billion of the US$ 2.54 billion total, are coming from the federal government.


According to a survey conducted by another organization, the Brazilian Association of Electric and Electronic Industries (Abinee), the number of jobs in the electric power distribution industry has also grown as a result of the implantion of the Light for All program, in 2003.


The number of workers in the sector rose from 20,200 to 22,500 between December, 2004, and April, 20, a 11.3% increase in four months.


“The Light for All program is an excellent bit of news for all the companies in the electricity distribution sector. The demand for equipment and material and 2004 and 2005 is estimated to be worth US$ 720 million (R$ 1.7 billion),” explains Newton José Leme Duarte, director of Abinee’s area of Generation, Transmission, and Distribution


“The program was stepped up in the universalization of access to electricity, previously set for 2015. The schedule was changed to carry out the plan in four years. The only way that this is possible is with substantial investments by distributors of electricity and the government, which are spending a lot on their projects.


“There is no doubt when it comes to their increasing their investments, and there will be more jobs in consequence of the program” affirms the president of the Abradee, Luiz Carlos Guimarães.


ABr

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazil Confident Bolivia Will Give In. Country Has No Other Market for Its Gas

The head of Brazil’s General Secretariat of the Presidency, Luiz Dulci, repeated what Brazilian President ...

Want Cheap Ethanol? Go Make It in Brazil

During the panel on energy security, on the first day of the International Conference ...

Cover of Brazilian weekly magazine Veja

The Brazilian Dream: Getting a Job in Government

Becoming a civil servant has become once again the Brazilian middle class dream, according ...

Brazil Gets Pet Love Motel to Be Rented by the Hour with Mirrors on the Ceiling

Brazil is home to a 32-million-strong canine population the world’s second largest after the ...

In Brazil, the Sarneys Are Synonym with Mismanagement and Corruption

When back in September 2003, the Getúlio Vargas Foundation shocked Brazil by placing Maranhão ...

Brazil’s PT Congressmen Get 10 Days to Explain Accusations of Corruption

A decision taken yesterday, August 4, by Brazil’s National Executive of the PT (Workers’ ...

Brazilian Journalist Hit by Home-Made Bomb. Political Motive Suspected

France-based international NGO dedicated to defend freedom of the press Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ...

Caretaker Who Toppled Brazil’s Finance Minister Sues Federal Savings Bank

Francenildo dos Santos Costa, the caretaker whose March 14th testimony contradicting earlier public testimony ...

Brazil Starts Sex Education Campaign for Gays

The Coordinator of Brazil’s Ministry of Health’s National Program for Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Aids, ...

Brazil Misses Another Chance to Do Indians Justice

Earlier this month, on January 3, Brazilian Justice Ellen Gracie of the Supreme Federal ...