:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/QJQ32CMQJBDIHEW7NPMCFB7GUI.jpg "Intervention of Edesur: the government summoned the company urgently and could impose a fine of more than 1,000 million dollars")
as reported GlobeLiveMedia Exclusively this afternoon, the government plans to intervene with Edesur, the electricity distribution company which has some 2.5 million customers in AMBAS, where it provides services in collaboration with Edenor.
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The situation finally clarified over the weekend after cuts and record temperatures. Energy Secretary Flavia Royón and the Comptroller of the National Energy Regulatory Entity (IN D), Walter Martello, put forward the idea of sanctioning the company of social networks. Now the situation has led to an “emergency” call for a meeting and a fine of up to several million dollars. The company confirmed that they were summoned today at 7:00 p.m.
As this medium was able to learn, the idea drawn from the intervention was reinforced after a meeting held at noon by the president Alberto Fernandez and the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa. Massa took part in a report in which the ENRE), and where intervention would be recommended, and the President gave the green light to continue working on the matter.
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After this meeting, there were others, this afternoon, at the Ministry of the Economy and at the Energy Secretariat, while Hammer complete the report on Edesur.
Now, the authorities claim to have convened “emergency” the company, whose shareholder is the Italian ENEL.
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“Our pulse will not tremble if it means having to terminate the electricity distribution service concession contract,” said Flavia Royon
There, the idea is to communicate the decision of a resolution that involves the permanent presence of ENRE technicians on the site “with powers to monitor operational processes, track complaints attention and intervene in performance in front of users,” they explained to GlobeLiveMedia official sources.
That’s not all. During this meeting, the authorities will also seek to define a new fine regime for the company. “Similarly, you will be informed of the execution of a legal sentence of one million dollars motivated by repeated sanctions for non-compliance. The figure would exceed 1,000 million pesos,” they assured.
Over the past year, the company has added fines of over $2 trillion. The central argument of the company is that it cannot freely dispose of the price of the tariff and that this has a full impact on the investments and therefore on the operation and quality of the service. As explained in an application today, Edesur “has operated without paying dividends for two decades, with the exception of $13 million in 2009. In this context, 100% of the company’s income has been directed to the operation, and in 2019 Enel injected 100 million dollars to be able to finance the investment plan”.
Although what is analyzed is a much more “active” intervention scheme, Edesur considers itself to have already intervened. A year ago and after cuts recorded in the summer of 2022, the ENRE ordered “as a result of the massive and prolonged supply cuts that persist in the concession of the Edesur distribution company” to appoint a supervisor in the company “in order to control the information on the operation of the cuts. Likewise, and through it, it is intended to evaluate the future measures that will be taken by the Entity ”.
For this purpose, the engineer was appointed Silvia Carmen Merzi, ENRE civil servant. Something similar happened in 2014. The tension between the company and Kirchnerism is old and at different times several of its representatives have publicly raised the possibility of nationalizing the distributor.
Now the context would be much broader and official controllers could decide how the business operated. From official offices, they assure that the decision, if taken, would be a management intervention that would have no impact on the concession the company has or on its share capital. No official speaks of nationalization, at least until now.
“Our pulse will not tremble if this means having to terminate the concession contract for the electricity distribution service handled by the Edesur company”had declared last Sunday on Twitter, in the midst of the cuts, the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royon.
“The ENRE will immediately instruct to reinforce the crews to restore service and will begin the compliance audit with the summer plan presented,” he said.
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