Power outages on weekends revived the confrontation between the government and Edesur. The Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royón, intervened on Sunday evening, in the face of the large number of customers without supply. And the controller of the distributors’ regulatory body (Enre), Walter Martello, ordered on Monday the preparation of a comprehensive report on the situation of the company, including investment compliance and other technical parameters. Although it seemed that the dispute was about to escalate and could lead to a drastic decision in the short term, This won’t happen, according to official sources explained a clarion.
Several sectors of government that have questioned Edesur since the pandemic are demanding that it be declare the expiry of the distributor’s concession. Enel, the Italian company with a 75% stake in Edesur, has put the distributor up for sale. Although Enel has stakeholders in its generation business, the electricity distributor It doesn’t seem to raise the same expectation.
In the Executive Power we speak of a “drastic decision” but it won’t be immediate. L’Enre usually fines Edesur for its alleged responsibility for the cuts. But the accumulating fines would not be enough generate sufficient legal reasons to justify the termination of the concession.
Walter Martello, controller of Enre, has launched a sort of global audit on the management of Edesur. It will be a performance report, per “evaluate their repeated violations and behavior towards users, and the corresponding evaluation of the acts that will follow”. Edesur is awaiting a response to Enre’s requests.
This Wednesday there will be a first meeting of the ENRE office for this audit. Those responsible for legal and regulatory affairs, quality control and investment monitoring will be present. Subsequently, those sectors of the Enre must bring together their respective departmental sections.
Even if there is great anxiety about what that report may indicate, all the same it won’t be ready anytime soon. Furthermore, ENRE will ask Edesur for a discharge on various issues.
“That report it will be technical and there will be no political decision. It will be sent to the respective areas (Secretariat of Energy, Ministry of Economy) so that they can decide which direction they want to take”, underline the Enre technicians.
The auditor Martello already had expressions in which he stated that the nationalization of Edesur is “a possibility”. But he has always made it clear that this process had to comply with a number of legal requirements, previous steps and notifications, so as not to generate a subsequent process in multilateral organizations for the country.
The association of distributors (Adeera) came out to explain that on Sunday February 12, there was a record demand for energy. But the government refuses that this argument justifies the cuts. “There were days of equal demand in December and the supply was maintained. There is no problem of generation”, contrast official sources. “We had to import from Brazil, there wouldn’t be much availability”replies a distributor who asks not to be identified.
The government’s cross-overs with Edesur also generate some suspicion in the private sector. “It’s a way to lower the price of Edesur so that a businessman friend can buy it,” they criticize. The reference would indicate to certain presumed names of entrepreneurs a welcome arrival to the Minister of Economy.
“This is ignorance. If Edesur has a new shareholder and is a serious person, the first thing to know is that an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars is needed for the company to provide the service on better terms”.
In government they say they have indicators that show few crews available at the time of the cuts, and a number of workers employed for this task that regulators consider “minimal”. They also criticize the fact that Edesur brought electricity generation equipment to different areas (Lugano, Esteban Echeverría), but that it took time to connect them, due to lack of personnel.
In the opposition there is diffidence on the orientation of the Executive with Edesur. Deputy Jimena Latorre, (UCR-Mendoza) is one of the few who participates in all the public hearings of the services. “On World Energy Day, the ‘illuminati’ of the government bring us a very original idea for Kirchnerism (referring to a possible nationalization),” she tweeted. “Actually I think they have chosen the date for Valentine’s Day, they are in love with the deficit and the bad state administration,” she criticized.
Source: Clarin
