Injunction suspends Aneel’s transmission lines auction

The National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) announced that the transmission lines auction scheduled for 9 am on Thursday (28) has been suspended by a court injunction. According to Aneel, the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), responsible for defending the federal government, is trying to overturn the court’s decision.

The injunction that suspended the auction was granted at the request of Jaac Materiais e Serviços de Engenharia Limitada, a company that was prevented from participating in the auction due to a problem with the deposit of guarantees, which were not in accordance with the terms of the notice.

According to André Pepitone, director of Aneel, the company did not indicate the guarantee in its name, but in the name of a consortium. “This constituted a new registration, which was not allowed by the notice at that time,” he said.

20 lots offered
On Thursday, the Aneel was scheduled to hold an auction of 20 lots, with 21 transmission lines and 23 power substations. The transmission lines and substations carry energy from power plants to consumers.

Transmission line auctions are held every year to increase the energy supply and strengthen the power system. The companies that win the auctions will be compensated through payments from consumers on their electricity bills.

In total, 2,600 kilometers of transmission lines and substations with a capacity of transforming 12.2 mega-volt-amperes (MVA) will be granted in 16 states: Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Goiás, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Pará, Paraíba, Piauí, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Sergipe, and Tocantins.

The winner of each lot will be the group that accepts the lowest value for the construction and operation of the line during the concession period. The maximum annual remuneration foreseen in the bid notice is approximately R$ 1 billion, for all lots combined.

The companies’ revenues during the contract’s validity can reach R$ 25.7 billion, and the expected investment in the construction of the lines is R$ 6 billion.
Aneel’s forecast is that the works should last from 36 to 63 months, depending on the lot, and should generate 13,600 direct jobs.

This is the first transmission auction of the year. In the last auction, held in December 2017, all 11 lots offered were purchased, making investments estimated at R$ 8.7 billion possible.

Source: G1