The National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE) ruled out this Thursday that the Government is studying the possibility of expropriating Edesur, after protests over the lack of service and the $1 billion fine to the company.
"No one is talking about the expropriation of Edesur,"
said Walter Martello, ENRE's controller.
Although he added that there are examples such as Brazil, "where the State has 45% of the company's shares."
Power cuts in the city of Buenos Aires.
Photo Lucia.
In this sense, he argued that the State has to interfere in "a monopolistic company", which has 60 years of concession ahead of it.
"State participation in monopoly companies where you cannot choose and also what they are providing is the consecration of a right, such as access to electricity, must have the presence of the State," he added.
The statements by the state regulatory body's controller come hours after the statements by spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti, who, when asked about a possible expropriation, replied that the Executive "analyzes all the variables, provided that they legally exist and are possible to take care
of
users and consumers".
Walter Martello, ENRE comptroller.
A few days ago, the Government issued a harsh warning to Edesur, the concession company that registered failures in its service that affected more than 180,000 users.
"Our pulse will not tremble if that implies having to terminate the concession contract for the electricity distribution service run by the company EDESUR," Flavia Royón, Secretary of Energy, tweeted.
The head of the ENRE warned that if a "technical quality" report is produced regarding the company, which does not give rise to a claim before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), "the end of the concession may happen quietly.
Martello flatly ruled out that an expropriation is being analyzed, maintained that it would not be the best path "because of the economic consequences with a trial in ICSID for the country" and reiterated that it is the power of the Executive to call a new tender.
"For our part, it is to reproduce breaches of sufficient quality for the political authority to determine what actions to follow regarding the concession," he said.
The ENRE controller began a kind of comprehensive audit on the management of Edesur, which will be a performance report, to "evaluate its repeated breaches and behaviors towards users, and the corresponding evaluation of the acts to follow."
In the audit that the Enre will carry out, whose first meeting will be next week, compliance with the investment regime, compliance with response times to users and quality in the transmission service of the entire area of the electric company will be verified. .
"There is not a problem solely of tariff delays that make it impossible for them to invest. There is a problem that they do not make investments chronically and that they also have a very bad management of what has to do with the operational part," concluded Martello.
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