Companies will ask for increases of more than 100%

Companies will ask for increases of more than 100%

This Friday the first public electricity hearing of the government of Javier Milei, to define the future of the electricity rate. 63 exhibitors will participate, including companies, the Government and the opposition. As Ámbito was able to find out from sources in the electricity sector, there will be requests for increases in electricity rates of around 150%, to recover the delay of recent years. Like the gas sector, they will ask that the rate be updated month by month.

The virtual public hearing to consider the rate adjustments of the services of the electricity distributors Edenor and Edesur of the Metropolitan Area It will take place this Friday starting at 8:30. The thing is that outside the AMBA, distribution services are under provincial jurisdiction.

Then, the call from the National Electricity Regulatory Entity (IN RE) It will be completed next Monday, with a second hearingin which requests for increases from transporters throughout the country will be analyzed.

First hearing: Edenor and Edesur

At the first hearing on Friday, the Secretary of Energy will speak, Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillowho will present the state of the electricity sector and anticipate what the reduction of subsidies will be like. He will speak after the presentation of the ENRE auditor, Darío Arrué.

During his time in Congress, given that he is one of the brains of the omnibus law, Chirillo had given a crude diagnosis of the sector: “The electricity generation park is very worrying, there was no investment, the available power is very close to the maximum demand and “The risks of cutting are very high.”

In addition, he had provided information that anticipates that the Government will also advance with the removal of electricity subsidies. Chirillo revealed that the rate It only covers 40% of the supply cost. This Friday there will be the details of how the subsidies will be removed. In the case of gas, it will be in three months, from February to April, 33% each month.

For the most vulnerable families there will be subsidies, as Chirillo anticipated during the public hearing on gas rates. It will be a completely different scheme to the current segmentation, where The family’s income and a basic energy basket of electricity and gas will be taken into account.whose details are unknown.

Then the representatives of Edenor, Guido Hernández, and Edesur, Jorge Lemos, will intervene. Together with the Secretary of Energy, the three will be the only ones with a speaking time of 20 minutes each, since the 26 representatives of legal entities will have a maximum of 10 minutes, while the 34 interested individuals will have no more than 5 minutes.

From the presentations of Edenor and Edesur there does not arise a specific request for an increase in the portion corresponding to the distribution value, but rather Each company details the need for “income readjustment” due to tariff arrears.

Edenor indicated that “a readjustment of income is necessary, prior to compliance with the comprehensive tariff review pending completion,” and in this regard it noted that “the Annual requirements for these Value Added Distribution (VAD) concepts, valued in December 2023 pesos, amount to $521,303 million for the purposes of covering the deficit”.

For its part, Edesur considered an income requirement of “at least $330,000 million in addition to those currently received as CPD (Own Distribution Cost), also as of December 31, 2023. Both Edenor and Edesur will require monthly updates based on a target rate.

The distribution factor is one of the three components of the final rate, along with those of generation and transportation, in addition to the tax burden represented by the taxes and fees of the Nation, the provinces and the municipalities.

Political presence

Of the rest of the speakers, the presence of four mayors stands out, all from Unión por la Patria: two from the Edesur concession area (Fernando Gray from Esteban Echeverría and Mayra Mendoza from Quilmes), and two from Edenor (Fernando Moreira from San Martín and Julio Zamora from Tigre).

The Minister of Infrastructure of Buenos Aires, Gabriel Katopodis, and only one national deputy, Gabriel Solano (FIT), are also registered.

As happened with the gas hearings, the leaders of Peronism will ask for smaller increases. Gray stated that “rate increases are out of step with revenues,” and He demanded that the hearing be held in person, since the Government organized it virtually. “I asked that the rate increase procedure be carried out with a public and in-person hearing. They send the increase and do not explain anything to you. Let the companies tell us what they are going to do,” he stated in dialogue with CNN Radio.

Furthermore, Gray assured: “The quality of services in the Metropolitan Area is very poor.” A year ago, in a much hotter summer than the current one, and in the midst of various power outages, especially in the south of the metropolitan area, the mayors had requested the nationalization of Edesur.

Among the business entities linked to the energy sector are representatives of the Association of Electric Power Generators (Ageera), Transporters (Ateera), Large Users (Agueera), Distributors (Adeera) and the Association of Gas Distributors (Adigas), in addition from the energy specialist of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), Alberto Calsiano.

With information from the Télam Agency

Source: Ambito

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