Brazil’s Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira on 17 December asked power regulator Aneel to consider terminating Enel’s distribution contract in São Paulo following yet another massive blackout that left more than two million customers without electricity.
Beyond residential discomfort, the outages have cascading effects on global mobility: São Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport lost key systems during the storm, contributing to the 369 flight cancellations reported earlier this week. Multinationals with Latin American headquarters along the city’s ‘Avenida Berrini’ tech corridor endured two full workdays on diesel generators, disrupting visa-document submissions that rely on stable internet connections to the Federal Police’s MigranteWeb portal.
Under Brazil’s concession law, Aneel can impose fines or initiate a public-service “caducity” process that eventually transfers operations to another provider. Either scenario would require a transition period in which planned maintenance outages are likely to increase, prompting building managers to review business-continuity plans.
![Government Urges Regulator to End Enel’s São Paulo Concession After Repeated Power Failures]()
Companies moving staff in and out of the country during these disruptions can simplify travel logistics by using VisaHQ’s Brazil portal (https://www.visahq.com/brazil/). The platform provides real-time visa requirements, digital application support and courier services, helping travelers secure the correct documents even when local infrastructure problems make in-person submissions difficult.
Enel has 30 days to respond to Aneel’s latest subpoena; the company argues that extreme weather, not maintenance flaws, caused the failures. However, labour unions point out that staffing levels have fallen 15 % since Enel took over the concession in 2018, lengthening repair times.
Global employers are being advised to map critical-staff residences against Enel’s service area and to update ‘safe-work-location’ policies that allow remote work during prolonged outages.
Beyond residential discomfort, the outages have cascading effects on global mobility: São Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport lost key systems during the storm, contributing to the 369 flight cancellations reported earlier this week. Multinationals with Latin American headquarters along the city’s ‘Avenida Berrini’ tech corridor endured two full workdays on diesel generators, disrupting visa-document submissions that rely on stable internet connections to the Federal Police’s MigranteWeb portal.
Under Brazil’s concession law, Aneel can impose fines or initiate a public-service “caducity” process that eventually transfers operations to another provider. Either scenario would require a transition period in which planned maintenance outages are likely to increase, prompting building managers to review business-continuity plans.
Companies moving staff in and out of the country during these disruptions can simplify travel logistics by using VisaHQ’s Brazil portal (https://www.visahq.com/brazil/). The platform provides real-time visa requirements, digital application support and courier services, helping travelers secure the correct documents even when local infrastructure problems make in-person submissions difficult.
Enel has 30 days to respond to Aneel’s latest subpoena; the company argues that extreme weather, not maintenance flaws, caused the failures. However, labour unions point out that staffing levels have fallen 15 % since Enel took over the concession in 2018, lengthening repair times.
Global employers are being advised to map critical-staff residences against Enel’s service area and to update ‘safe-work-location’ policies that allow remote work during prolonged outages.
