Um lifting carried out by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) pointed out that 56% of companies consulted are interested in migrating from the captive market to the free market. The estimate is that 45 thousand industries will be able to migrate from 2024, with the potential to obtain an average saving of 15% to 20% in electricity costs.
Ordinance No. 50/2022 of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) establishes that companies connected in medium and high voltage will be able to migrate to the free market starting next year.
The survey numbers reveal that, among large companies, 59% stated that there is a possibility of migrating to the free market. Among medium-sized industries, this same percentage was 61% and, among small companies, 48% indicated the possibility of migrating.
“Now is the time for these companies to prepare for migration. 2023 will be a year to study the market, plan and calculate the feasibility of entering the free market. The estimate is that 45 thousand industries are able to migrate from 2024 onwards”, says Roberto Wagner Pereira, Energy specialist at CNI.
Electric energy is the main source of energy for 78% of Brazilian industries. The other sources consumed by the industry are: diesel oil (4%), natural gas (4%), firewood (3%) and sugarcane bagasse (2%).
In the last 12 months, the average percentage increase in electricity costs in the total production cost of industries was around 13%. For 75% of companies, this increase had a relevant impact on their costs, being medium or high for 40% of these companies.
The survey was carried out last October with 2.016 companies, 794 small, 734 medium and 498 large.
Free market x captive market
Regarding the market in which companies acquire energy supply, 45% of the total are only captive consumers, that is, they purchase electricity from the local distributor. Respondents classified as only free consumers represent 34%, while companies that only self-generate energy represent 5%.
The total number of companies that are already in the free energy market, exclusively or not, is 40%. Among small companies, 70% obtain energy from the captive market. Only 6% are completely on the free market. Considering medium-sized companies, 57% are in the captive market and 25% only in the free market. Among large companies, there is a greater insertion in the free market, where 59% of companies obtain supplies from the free market, 52% exclusively from the free market.
Energy Efficiency
The majority of companies (52%) invested in more efficient machines. Among large companies this percentage is higher: 63% invested in more efficient machines. Among medium and small companies the percentages were 48% and 33%, respectively.
Classifying by industrial segments, investments in more efficient machines were more common among companies in the extractive industry (69%) and among processing companies (54%). Among companies in the construction industry, 31% said they had invested in more efficient machines.
