All Brazilians will pay three reais for every 100 kilowatt-hours of energy they consume from the 1st. This is the Greek gift the federal government is giving the country to usher in 2015, through a new system of tariffs, the flag system. The first flag will be completely red, meaning that the cost of generation is higher and therefore consumers will have to pay more.
There are two other flags. The green flag indicates favorable energy generation conditions and the tariff is not increased. The yellow flag indicates less favorable conditions, imposing an increase of R$1.50 for every 100 kWh.
Only Amazonas, Amapá and Roraima will escape the increase because they are systems that are not yet fully integrated with the rest of Brazil, which leads to higher generation costs.
According to the division established by Aneel, Pará, divided into two (Celpa and Jari), belongs to the Northern subsystem, which also includes Maranhão and Tocantins. Acre and Rondônia went to the Central-West subsystem. For energy purposes, the Amazon has already been cut up, which softens and disperses its colonial function.
A masochistic exercise to start the year off on the wrong foot: calculate how much extra you will pay because, occasionally, the cost of energy at the hydroelectric plant is higher due to the fact that the end of summer has reduced the volume of water in the Tocantins River reservoir.
This small and ephemeral deficit was compensated by an equalization fund. Now the government is going to take this money directly from the consumer’s pocket, under the pretext of rationality, modernization and fairness.