‘Jabutis’ to the MP of Minha Casa will cost R$ 1 billion in the light bill, says Aneel

Calculations by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) point out that ‘jabutis’ placed by the National Congress in the provisional measure that recreated Minha Casa Minha Vida will cost R$ 1 billion a year in the electricity bills of all Brazilians who are not beneficiaries of the program and need electricity from the distributors.

This is because program beneficiaries who have solar panels installed in their homes will have a 50% discount on the minimum amount they need to pay to keep a solar panel connected to the grid, using public infrastructure as a kind of “battery”. The cost of this measure, according to Aneel, will be R$ 429.54 million per year.

Another amendment also establishes that energy distributors must buy the surplus generated in homes, impacting an additional R$ 663.24 million per year due to acquisition costs (R$ 601.51 megawatt-hour) and sale costs ( BRL 69.04/MWh).

The provisional measure also waives the bidding process for public bodies to acquire excess energy from housing programs, which, says Aneel, can be understood as a benefit to a specific type of producer to the detriment of hundreds of other plants that generate and market energy on the free market in a competitive manner.

“This differentiated treatment of a specific type of electricity generator can influence market competition and lead public bodies to contract energy at more onerous prices for the Administration”, says the official letter from the regulatory agency sent to the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) and released by the newspaper O Globo released this Tuesday (20).

The text awaits sanction or veto from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who should analyze the project after his return from his trip to Europe, scheduled for the end of this week.