At least one distributor was caught renewing a contract early in order to delay a consumer's migration to the Free Energy Market. The case was ed on the ABRACEEL (Brazilian Association of Electric Energy Traders) reporting channel.
O Speak Here! is an ABRACEEL communication channel created for associated companies to report problems in the process of migrating consumers to Mercado Livre.
According to ABRACEEL, a distributor automatically renewed a consumer's supply contract six months before the due date – and not on the day after the due date. Early renewal would harm the consumer who, in this case, would have to wait longer until the migration process was completed.
According to regulation, consumers who wish to migrate to Mercado Livre must notify the distributor six months (180 days) before the end of the current contract.
Until December 31, 2023, CCER (Regulated Energy Purchase Contracts) between consumers and distributors were automatically renewed after the end of 12 months.
For you to understand better, let's create a hypothetical case. Imagine a consumer with a contract expiring on December 1, 2023. According to the old regulations, the following day this contract is automatically renewed for 12 months.
If this consumer chose to migrate to Mercado Livre, he would need to wait until May 2024 to notify the distributor of his decision and wait another 180 days to complete the migration process. In this situation, the consumer would only become free in December 2024.
However, with the publication of Normative Resolution 1.081/2023, in force since January 1st of this year, the CCER will have an indefinite period after the end of the current contract.
With this new regulation, consumers who have contracts with the distributor expiring this year can request migration to Mercado Livre the next day. This makes the process more agile.
Case ended up in ANEEL
ABRACEEL took the case to ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency). For the association, there is no regulatory basis for the practice. Through an official letter, the regulator made it clear that the renewal of CCERs can only occur on the day after the expiration of the current contract.
“The Association gives the example of a consumer who has the current CCER that expires on 01/03/2024. According to its understanding, the new CCER that will come into effect on D+1 should be for an indefinite period, in order to enable the migration of this consumer 180 days after this date, that is, from September 2024.”
“Regarding the consultation, we confirm that, in the example cited, the CCER will assume indefinite validity on the day following the end of the current validity (02/03/2024). As a consequence, if the complaint is made on that date, after 180 days (on 29/08/2024) the consumer will be able to migrate to the ACL without being subject to payment for the early termination of the contract”, says the letter from ANEEL, which the Canal Solar had access.
“In ABRACEEL's understanding, what must occur within 180 days before the end of the CCER's validity is the consumer's manifestation, to the distributor, informing it of the decision to leave the regulated environment and migrate to the free environment, not thus renewing the supply contract – a formal manifestation known in the market as “contract termination”. This period of 180 days is provided for in Resolution 1.000/2021. Therefore, the effective renewal of the CCER should only occur on the day following the end of its validity, when the new CCER with an indefinite term comes into force”, says the association in a note.
