Rates of Cemig and CPFL soar 16%

The Treasury additional contributions in the energy development account (CDE), where the resources to cover the cost of the thermal power plants, will reduce considerably the projected increase for this year in the tariffs of the distributors. With the new subsidies, announced yesterday, the average increase in the electric bill of Brazilians should be around 14.45% in 2014, says Paul Steele, TR, Solutions consulting firm specializing in electrical energy costs calculation.
Initially, the distribution tariffs would go up by an average of 19.62% this year, even with all the Government's efforts to postegar the most of the adjustments, delaying the transfers for 2015, says the consultant.
Yesterday, the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) has approved an increase of 16.33% in the tariffs of Cemig this year, which serves 805 cities in Minas Gerais. The regulatory agency also raised the tariffs charged by 17.05% CPFL Paulista, which provides power to 234 municipalities in São Paulo. The readjustments of the two distributors enter into force today.
The increase was much smaller than predicted by mining State, which protruded readjusting near 30%. According to the Manager of rates of Cemig, Sajid Hussain Xavier Moreira Júnior, just change in CDE avoided an increase of six percentage points in the electricity bill of the clients served by the company.
Initially, some of the resources that supply the CDE would have to come from consumers, says Steele. About r $ of 5.6 billion would be levied on the electricity bill this year, according to the initial plans of the Government. Yesterday, however, in an extraordinary meeting of the Board, Aneel decreased that amount to r $ 1.7 billion, thus avoiding an increase of at least three percentage points in rates this year, says the consultant.
Before the changes, the Cemig would have to pass it on to their rates $ 648 million of expenditure with the CDE. "But this value was lowered to $ 194 million," says Moreira Júnior.
In addition to the lower costs with the CDE, Aneel used projections more "conservative" for the behavior of short-term market prices (price of settlement of Differences-PLD) this year. This also explains, in part, the big difference between the 30% rate provided for by the company and 16.33% granted by the regulatory body this year. According to Moreira Júnior, Cemig predicts that prices will continue in the coming months near the ceiling of $ 822 per MWh. But Aneel took into account a lower price of $ 630 per MWh, explained the Executive of Cemig.
The company, he said, uses the models from the national system operator (ONS) to make their projections. If prices are higher, the difference will enter the adjustment in distribution tariffs next year.
The increase in transfers from Treasury to the CDE was approved yesterday at short notice, just a little before the definition, by Aneel, the readjustment of Cemig and CPFL. The new rates of the two companies will serve as a parameter to other distributors, whose rates will be adjusted during the year.
Aneel approved yesterday also the ending index of the third rate review of Broad energy, which serves 66 cities of Rio de Janeiro. Residential consumers of distributor will have a 0.74% reduction in electricity bill. Customers of medium and high voltage will have an increase of 0.48 percent and 8.11% respectively. The distributors undergo tariff revisions every four years. The goal is to transfer efficiencies to final consumers.
In 2015, says Steele, Aneel shall initiate the room tariff review cycle, a process that could not come at a better time for the federal Government. The expectation is that the revisions mitigate the readjustments in electric bills, which tend to slow down to 10.07% next year, even with the transfers in electric bills, says Steele. This scenario, however, takes into account a normalization of the climate. If it doesn't rain again, the frame will be different.