Governments unite to seek termination of Enel’s contract in São Paulo

The announcement followed a meeting at the São Paulo state government headquarters between the three officials. Last week, high winds exceeding 90 km/h knocked out power for 2.2 million homes in the metropolitan region served by Enel, affecting over 8.5 million people.

Silveira, Tarcísio, and Nunes presented a united front in calling for the contract’s cancellation. “Enel has lost the necessary conditions, reputationally included, to continue providing concession services in São Paulo,” Silveira said. “We are jointly urging the regulatory agency to start the process of terminating Enel’s concession in São Paulo.”

“We are fully aligned—federal, state and municipal governments—to initiate a rigorous regulatory process. We expect ANEEL to respond as quickly as possible to the people of São Paulo by starting the termination procedure, which will certainly result in better power distribution services,” Silveira added. He did not provide a timeline for ANEEL’s decision.

Governor De Freitas called Enel’s situation in the state “absolutely unsustainable.” “It can no longer provide services. There is a serious reputational issue, and it repeatedly leaves our population stranded,” he said. “We have agreed that there is no alternative but to proceed with the most severe measure available in the concession contract: declaring its termination.”

‘No other alternative’

He added that both the state and municipal governments will submit studies to the Ministry and Aneel detailing Enel’s repeated failures in São Paulo to support the case for ending the contract. “There is no other alternative,” he said. “This is the main regulatory measure available and carries serious consequences, including the suspension of the right to request an early contract renewal.”

Enel serves 24 municipalities in the metropolitan area, including the capital. Its contract runs through 2028. Despite repeated outages and service failures, the company has already requested an early renewal from ANEEL.

Mayor Nunes reiterated that the federal ministry would press ANEEL to begin the termination process. “Enel lacks the structure and commitment to meet the region’s needs, especially when faced with adverse events stemming from climate change,” he said.

Both Nunes and Tarcísio said the joint meeting of the three government levels was encouraged by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is closely monitoring the issue. On Friday, the governor and mayor briefly spoke to Lula about the situation during the launch event of the SBT News channel in São Paulo.

As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, Enel’s website showed 47,526 properties in São Paulo without power, about 0.81% of its clients in the city. On Monday, the number was 25,000. Other cities in the metro area saw double-digit outage rates: São Lourenço da Serra (13.8%), Ribeirão Pires (11.47%), and Juquitiba (10.8%). The storm hit the region on Wednesday (10).

Power outages have been a persistent issue for Enel’s service areas in São Paulo. In 2023, 2.1 million homes were left without power; in 2024, the number rose to 2.4 million.

In a statement, the São Paulo city government said Enel had signed a cooperation agreement committing to 282,271 tree prunings this year. “However, only 31,945 prunings—11% of the Annual Pruning Plan—had been completed by the company as of Monday (15),” the statement said. “This pitiful result proves the concessionaire’s lack of commitment and the poor quality of service provided to the people of São Paulo.”