Authorities passing the buck over São Paulo electricity chaos

Around 200,000 homes in Greater São Paulo are still without electricity, four days after the state was hit by heavy rains and high winds. Speaking to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, the head of São Paulo’s metropolitan electricity distribution operator said his company has “no reason to apologize” for delays in reestablishing power supplies in and around Brazil’s biggest city, and that Friday’s winds were “absurd.”

Nicola Cotugno, president of Enel Brasil, blamed the high number of trees toppled during the storm for the widespread power outages — and the subsequent delays in reconnecting homes.

Across São Paulo state, Friday’s rains left eight people dead and around 4.2 million suffering from some form of power outage. The São Paulo city hall received some 2,000 reports of fallen trees. Mr. Cotugno claimed that, of these trees, “around 1,000” disrupted exposed aerial electricity lines and cut power supplies.

São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, a staunch proponent of privatizing public services, refused to criticize Enel Brasil, and said that the state cannot “be stuck on the things that went wrong,” encouraging people to look at “airports, telecommunications, and highways,” which he classified as successful examples of private involvement in public services.

Asked about the power cuts specifically, he said “the tree issue was the main villain,” calling for more efficient tree trimming around metropolitan areas, to reduce the chance of future problems.

Altering São Paulo’s electricity system by burying cables underground has been floated as a potential solution, but batted away by most authorities as being an “expensive” alternative.

During the qualifying rounds for the São Paulo Grand Prix, which took place over the weekend, the roofs of VIP stands were partially blown off during wind gusts that reached up to 103 kilometers per hour.

The private company has downsized staff numbers by 35 percent since 2019, but Mr. Cotugno stressed that this has nothing to do with Enel’s delay in reestablishing power lines, saying that experts and field teams were not affected by cuts.

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