Edesur controller Jorge Ferraresi will announce a work plan for the distributor on Monday. This was announced by Economy Minister Sergio Massa on Twitter. “This plan of the works will be carried out on the basis of the survey made municipality by municipality of the concession area”, said Massa. The controller of Enre, Walter Martello, was also aware of what the investments will be.
Although the government has not provided further details, it is estimated that the investment plan will reach $30,000 million for the next few months. They aim to strengthen the laying towards winter when there are usually cuts in some municipalities due to high demand.
The works would be in 280 locations or points along the line, according to industry sources. Mayors have called for the creation of substations or other projects that require investment.
The company’s financial capacity to make investments is linked to its ability to collect. The distributors in Buenos Aires (Edenor and Edesur) were authorized two increases for the provision of their distribution service. They will be in April and June.
The first increase takes effect from 1 April and the next from 1 June.
According to a calculation carried out by the consultancy firm Economía & Energía, it shows that the increases will range from 19% to 48%, depending on the category that families have in the subsidy register.
For segments N1 (high income, who have not applied for benefits or who want to continue saving in dollars), the increase will average 19%. An average ticket in this segment will run from $4,375 to $5,200 a monthaccording to Economia e Regioni, the consultancy company chaired by Nicolás Arceo.
To this we must add the elimination of subsidies to the cost of electricity that this segment will suffer. So far they had a 36% subsidy on the cost. From May it will be 0%. However, this money will not go to the companies, but will go to Cammesa, the wholesale administrator of the electrical system.
In Buenos Aires electricity bills, almost 60% of what is paid is the electricity cost. A “median” utility bill — a “category average” — will range from $2,700 to $3,500 in middle-income households. Again, the impact will differ depending on consumption.
Light consumption reaches its peak in the summer months. Then it decreases in autumn, but resumes in winter. Thousands of homes do not have access to the natural gas network and rely on electric devices to heat their homes. This causes a higher consumption of electricity.
Sectors that do not have access to the gas network are usually identified in the grant register as low income (N2). For example, you can take R7 consumption, which is a high electrical demand. In a high-income household, the bill will be $16,000, while in a “low” income household, it will reach $9,300. Still, that’s a 57% increase over the $5,900 a month you’d pay for that bill today.
Winter cuts were the protagonists in the first year of the pandemic (2020). The mayors have accused Edesur, asking for its nationalisation. The distributor claimed that connections were being made without its approval, weakening the capacity of the network and the ability to monitor it.
Tensions escalated last summer. Edesur had cuts in December 2022, plus February and March this year. For the December outages, it will have to pay $132 million to 70,000 users.
The Italian Enel, owner of Edesur, has put the company up for sale. It has already divested its generation activities.
Source: Clarin
