One day after the President of the STJ (Supreme Court of Justice), Herman Benjamin, unilaterally suspended the injunction that required the ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency) to compensate wind and photovoltaic energy generators for generation cuts, ABSOLAR (Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy) stated that it will continue fighting for the recognition of the rights of its .
Last Monday (22), Benjamin accepted an appeal from the ANEEL, agreeing with the agency's argument that the injunction granted in favor of ABEEólica and ABSOLAR, by the Fifth of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, would harm public and economic order, by transferring millions in costs to energy consumers.
According to the STJ minister, the TRF1 did not fully consider the effects of its decision on other agents in the electricity sector.
A ABSOLAR said that the STJ decision does nothing “to dissuade and even reinforces the conviction about the rigidity of the rights of its , ed for more than 20 years by Law No. 10.848/2004 and Decree No. 5.163/2004”.
For the entity, “generation cuts promoted by the ONS (National Electric System Operator) imposed on entrepreneurs for reasons external to the plants, in no way related to their performance, belong to the system and should not be concentrated on solar generators, which did not cause these events and can do nothing to manage them.”
ABSOLAR He said that reimbursements cannot wait for the unfolding of future procedural steps and cites as an example the generation cuts carried out in September 2024, which ed a record for the year, preventing the production of an average of 800 MW from photovoltaic plants alone.
“As a reference, the amount of energy cut in September 2024, of 850 MW average from solar, represents an investment of more than R$ 15 billion in solar sources, according to the reference values used by the Energy Research Company (EPE) in sectoral planning”, highlighted the association.
The entity also argues that the payment of compensation to generators “does not harm the consumer, who would actually save almost R$250 million if the cuts in renewable plants in the 2022-2023 biennium were avoided, since more expensive and polluting thermoelectric plants would not have to be activated.”
Check out the full note below ABSOLAR
Sao Paulo, January 23, 2025
Yesterday, 22/01/2025, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ), Herman Benjamin, unilaterally suspended the injunction of the Fifth of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, in favor of the Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (ABSOLAR) and the Brazilian Association of Wind Energy and New Technologies (ABEEÓLICA), which determined the full reimbursement of for generation outage events (operation restriction due to constrained-off, counted from the date of 04/12/2024).
This reimbursement is scheduled to be made today in relation to the cut events classified as “external unavailability” and “incidence of the hourly allowance”. The decision of the Chief Justice of the STJ, which did not address the merits of the associations’ action, was limited to merely declining the reasons why the preliminary injunction was previously granted in favor of the ABSOLAR and ABEEÓLICA for compensation from any and all courts, under the argument that the Court's decision should be reserved for the moment immediately after the judgment of the parties' future appeals.
Therefore, the decision in no way deters and even reinforces the conviction of ABSOLAR on the rigidity of the rights of its , ed for over 20 years by Law No. 10.848/2004 and Decree No. 5.163/2004, but repeatedly and regrettably violated. In fact, this entire process corroborates that the costs of generation cuts promoted by the National Electric System Operator (ONS), that is, imposed on entrepreneurs for reasons external to the plants, in no way related to their performance, belong to the system and should not be concentrated on solar generators, which did not cause these events and can do nothing to manage them.
A ABSOLAR also remains convinced that, unlike the perception expressed in yesterday's decision, reimbursements cannot wait (in addition to the long wait already imposed in decades of denied exercise of rights) for the unfolding of future procedural steps for payment to generators, especially because, with the application of the National Electric Energy Agency's rule (ANEEL) contested by the agents, the amounts to be received for 2023 and 2024 will be less than 0,5% of the total due, that is, practically zero.
It is worth noting that this practically zero compensation contrasts with the increasing cuts in of frequency and intensity. In September/2024, for example, a record number of generation cuts was recorded for the year, which prevented the production of more than 850 MW average of energy by solar plants.
For reference, the amount of energy cut in September 2024, of 850 MW average from solar, represents an investment of more than R$ 15 billion in solar sources, according to reference values used by the Energy Research Company (EPE) in sectoral planning.
Thus, the solar generation cuts that occurred, only and solely in September 2024, rendered investments of more than 15 billion reais useless.
The practical effects of economic discouragement are already being felt and are illustrated by the significant 77% reduction in requests for Grant Registration Dispatches – DROs (new renewable projects) between 2021 (the year in which the first version of the standard was published) and XNUMX (the year in which the first version of the standard was published). ANEEL contested) and 2024.
In addition to the harmful effects on the renewable generation segment, the stance of ANEEL is worrying because it promotes a distorted regulatory signal.
Due to the undue restrictions on the compensation of solar generators imposed by ANEEL, virtually no cost is attributed to the cuts in renewable generation – and therefore the waste – of energy from these sources.
In practice, from the point of view of the economic optimization of the system, the Operator considers it more economical to waste clean and renewable energy than that coming from thermoelectric sources, which are recognized as more expensive and polluting.
Official data extracted from the ONS itself reveals that, were it not for the generation cuts made in 2024, part of the thermoelectric generation used in the same period could have been satisfied by the renewable generation that was frustrated.
Thus, unlike the discourse propagated by ANEEL, the payment of compensation does not harm the consumer, who, in fact, would save almost R$250 million if the cuts in renewable plants in the 2022-2023 biennium were avoided, since more expensive and polluting thermoelectric plants would not have to be activated.
Therefore, with a view to preserving the solar generation segment – for which the issue is decisive for maintaining investments in renewables in Brazil –, as well as to protecting the payers themselves from the tariff burden intended to generation cuts, ABSOLAR will continue to fight for the recognition of the rights of its .
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