The Congressat the proposal of congressmen from Fuerza Popular, proposes to pass a law in the electricity sector that would allow banks, large stores and medium-sized companies to pay less for their electricity consumption, but harming residential customers.
The rule is promoted as one of support for SMEs, but in reality, according to sources in the sector, it will benefit only two electricity generating companies that lost income when in 2020 the Supreme Court repealed the supreme decree 043-2017 that had distorted the electricity market.
Once again, the main loser will be the residential user who will see their electricity bill increased immediately. Electroperuand therefore to the Consolidated Reserve Fund that provides resources to the Pension Normalization Office (ONP) to pay pensions to retirees.
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They will end up subsidizing the electricity of the big companies.
dangerous urgency
Bills 900 and 937 were hastily scheduled and without due debate last Friday, which was a holiday, to be approved in a session called for this Monday, June 27 at 10:00 in the morning in the Commission of Energy and Mines.
Its promoters have the objective, the sources warn, of approving it in the present extended legislature that runs until July 8. The projects would be approved without having heard the opinion of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the ONP. the minem, Osinergmin and COES have spoken out against it.
Congressman Juan Burgos Oliveros had asked the president of said commission, Popular Action congressman Enrique Alva Rojas, to invite the head of the ONP, the MEF and the president of Electroperú to evaluate the collateral effects of both projects.
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Alva agreed to convene them, but instead put the project on the agenda for approval. “As I explained in said session, the bills in question would be attacking the pensions of thousands of ONP retirees, while Electroperú would be harming itself by paying a minimum consumption to two generators, regardless of the actual consumption of customers. regulated”, said Burgos, in an official letter that he sent to Alva on Friday.
The disputed market
The electricity market on the users’ side is made up of regulated customers and free customers. Regulated customers are the eight million home users, warehouses and small businesses.
The free customers are 2,500 large consumers that make up banks, shopping malls, factories and large companies. Home customers buy energy from electricity distributors: eleven are state owned and three are private, in Lima and Ica.
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On the other hand, the 2,500 regulated companies buy directly from power generators. Currently, they pay 50% less than a residential user for the cost of electricity, which can be reached through the same cable.
Projects 900 and 937 propose to include some 10,000 SMEs among the free clients that will be able to contract electricity with the generators and, therefore, they say they will reduce their expenses and improve their income.
But since nothing is free, someone will have to bear the costs.
There’s the catch. In principle, the distributors will lose customers and will have surplus energy that they have already bought and will have to pay, because they sign long-term power purchase contracts.
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Later, in one or two years, when they go shopping again, they will ask for less energy, so to compensate for their income and profits, they will increase their costs to residential users.
Then, the great seller of the distributors is Electroperú. The state entity buys electricity, especially from the Cerro del Águila and Chaglla generators for fixed amounts and costs.
That sells to distributors and regulated users. Current contracts oblige Electroperú to buy fixed amounts of energy, regardless of whether regulated users and distributors need it.
Damage. Market distortion harms Electroperú. Photo: diffusion
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Thus, if the norm under discussion is approved, it will have a product that it will not be able to sell, since the distributors will have fewer clients. That will affect your earnings that go to the Reserve Fund to pay the pensioners of the 19990 law.
Specialists calculate that private distributors and Electroperú could have losses of 1,500 million soles, in a period of five years, if the aforementioned bill is approved.
Hence the need for a greater debate to find out who is really going to benefit from including SMEs among free clients.
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“There is a negotiated in favor of the generating companies”
“This is not regulating the market. It is evident a negotiated in favor of the electricity generating companies and harming Electroperú and with them the thousands of pensioners of the 19990 law, “said the lawyer of the Fonavistas, Raúl Canelo.
He noted that the bill that the Energy and Mines Commission intends to approve on Monday seeks to turn around the Supreme Court ruling that annulled Supreme Decree 043-2017, once again distorting the electricity market, in favor of one or two companies. generators.
“On a holiday they have agreed to schedule the project on electricity portability for a vote with the sole opinion of the National Society of Industries and without listening to the opinion of Electroperú, the ONP and the representatives of the pensioners and Fonavistas”, he explained.
He recalled that the distortion of decree 043-2017 generated millionaires lost to Electroperú.
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