Majority of industries experienced power cuts in last 12 months

Seventy percent of manufacturing executives reported at least one unannounced power outage at their factories over the last 12 months, according to a study commissioned by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) disclosed on Monday.

Pollster IPRI, which conducted the survey, interviewed 1,002 manufacturing executives by phone from small, medium, and large companies between late April and late May. Almost half (47 percent) are from the Southeast, Brazil’s wealthiest and most populous region.

Power outages were reported in similar numbers by different-sized companies. They were more frequent in the Northeast (79 percent) compared to 71 percent in the Southeast. Even in the South, the region with the best performance, unannounced power outages were reported by 64 percent of respondents.

Among those who reported power outages, 21 percent said they happened 11 or more times in the previous 12 months. 34 percent reported two to four outages, while 9 percent said it happened only once.

Also within this group, 46 percent of industries reported that the outages caused a “serious” or “meaningful” impact on productivity, with 20 percent saying they had minimal or no impact.

Roberto Wagner Pereira, CNI’s energy manager, said in a statement that “the biggest problem of power outages for the industry is in halting production. Depending on the type of company and production line, there are losses of raw materials, products, and working hours. These are considerable losses, which end up in high costs for industries.”

In late 2023, millions in the city of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest, were left without electricity for several days after a massive storm. Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira instructed Brazil’s federal energy regulator, Aneel, to open disciplinary proceedings against Enel, the Italian multinational in charge of power distribution in the state.

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