Aneel determines special energy plans for 2024 municipal elections

Electricity distributors must have special service plans to guarantee supply during the voting and counting of the general elections next Sunday (4).

The determination is made by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy and which acts as the sector's regulator.

The agency sent letters to electricity generators, transmitters and distributors. Among the guidelines is priority attention to voting locations, Regional Electoral Courts (TREs) and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), in Brasília.

Another determination is the suspension of non-emergency interventions in energy installations, in addition to the reinforcement of service teams.

Any occurrence on Sunday will be subject to inspection by Aneel.

Distributors, companies responsible for making energy reach homes and establishments, claim to have carried out preventive maintenance to ensure supply. Voting areas were also inspected.

Reinforced teams

According to the president of the Brazilian Association of Electricity Distributors (Abradee), Patrícia Audi, the operation is “gigantic”.

“There will be an increase in teams on duty to serve the thousands of electoral zones spread across the country,” he says.

Neoenergia, for example, which operates in Rio Grande do Norte, Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, Pernambuco, Distrito Federal and Bahia, presented the special plan to the TREs in each concession area. The company claims to have carried out preventive maintenance on almost 133 thousand kilometers of electrical network, in addition to around 910 thousand pruning operations.

Enel, which serves part of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and all of Ceará, informed that it will keep generators available at strategic points to serve the electoral zones.

Energisa, which controls 11 distributors (Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Sergipe, Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Tocantins, Paraná, São Paulo, Rondônia and Acre), informed that it will monitor more than 9,300 voting locations and that it will maintain direct communication with the electoral authorities.

Equatorial, present in seven states (Pará, Amapá, Alagoas, Goiás, Maranhão, Piauí and Rio Grande do Sul), will also monitor weather conditions. Personnel reinforcement will include our own and outsourced teams.

First round

On Sunday, federal, state and district deputies (in the case of the Federal District), governors, two senators per federation unit and the president of the Republic will be elected.

The second round is scheduled for the 25th and could take place in the dispute for the positions of governor and president. Voters will return to the polls if none of the candidates obtains more than 50% of the valid votes, excluding blank and null votes, in the first round.