Tarcísio management charges federal government over breach of Enel contract

The administration of governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) sent this Thursday, 19th, a letter to the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, and to the general director of the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), Sandoval Feitosa, requesting an estimated deadline for completing the monitoring process of the Enel São Paulo concession. The investigation may culminate in the declaration of expiry of the contract.

The document is signed by the Secretary of Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics, Natália Resende, and the Secretary of Investment Partnerships, Rafael Benini. In the text, the São Paulo government calls for the immediate suspension of any initiatives aimed at extending the concession and supports the need to declare the expiry.

State management classifies Enel’s performance as marked by “recurrence of failures that highlight structural deficiencies in preventive maintenance, insufficient investment in modernization and renewal of the network, as well as inadequacy of the concessionaire’s personnel contingent”. The objective, according to the letter, is to avoid further episodes of collapse in the energy supply in the concession area.

Opportunity with security!

On December 16, 2025, the minister, Tarcísio and the mayor of the capital, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), announced that they would contact Aneel to begin the expiry process after a meeting lasting almost three hours, behind closed doors, at Palácio dos Bandeirantes. A few days earlier, the governor and mayor also discussed the issue with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), during the launch of the television channel SBT News. Despite the cooperative atmosphere at the time, the current climate between the administrations seems to have changed again.

On the 10th of that month, after a historic wind hit the capital and Greater São Paulo, around 2.3 million properties were left without power. The blackout reignited criticism of the concessionaire and exposed the repetition of blackouts already recorded in the previous year.

Although the service is provided in the capital of São Paulo and in 23 other municipalities in the Metropolitan Region, the concession falls under federal jurisdiction, with Aneel being responsible for conducting any process to cancel the contract. The current agreement extends until 2028, and the possibility of early renewal was even considered by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

The episode also generated political friction between the Lula and Tarcísio administrations. In previous statements, Alexandre Silveira stated that Tarcísio and Nunes were engaged in a “political dispute” over an extreme weather event. The governor demanded that the federal government “get moving” and stated that there would be no way to “shove the contract renewal down our throats” in 2028.

Even so, the head of the São Paulo Executive avoided criticism of the private management model and directed the charges specifically to Enel. According to him, if the company is “cash generating”, any intervention could use these resources to cover operational expenses (Opex) and investments (Capex) necessary to normalize the service, highlighting that contingency plans are not always sufficient.

After the blackout in December, the ministry changed its position and reported that the Lula administration determined “absolute rigor” in monitoring the concessionaire, highlighting that it will not tolerate “repeated failures, prolonged interruptions or any disrespect towards the population, especially in an essential service”.