Brazil Regulator Opens Case to Revoke Enel’s São Paulo Power License

Overview

• Aneel’s board, which voted Tuesday, opened a formal caducity proceeding against Enel São Paulo and gave the company 30 days to submit its defense.
• The Energy Ministry holds the final decision with no legal deadline, and Minister Alexandre Silveira withheld early renewals for Enel Rio and Enel Ceará because of the São Paulo court fight.
• Ending the contract would trigger an indemnity estimated at R$13–14 billion, which is capped to unamortized grid assets and reduced by large unpaid fines recorded since 2018.
• To keep power flowing if caducity is declared, options include appointing a federal interventor to run the distributor or keeping Enel under tighter oversight while a new operator is selected.
• Specialists expect appeals and lawsuits that could stretch past 2028, while regulators cite long outages, slow emergency response, and weak contingency plans that have affected more than 8 million customers in Greater São Paulo.