By Brazil Stock Guide – Customers of five electricity distributors in Brazil’s North and Northeast began paying lower power tariffs on Wednesday, August 26, with reductions of as much as 10.63% for households and small businesses. The cuts are being funded through a mechanism that redirected R$5.48 billion generated by the renegotiation of payments linked to hydropower concessions toward lowering electricity bills.
The largest reduction applies to customers of Energisa Rondônia, where low-voltage tariffs are falling by 10.63%. Tariffs are dropping by 6.65% at Enel Ceará, 5.20% at Energisa Acre, 4.63% at Sulgipe and 1.36% at Energisa Tocantins, according to Brazil’s electricity regulator ANEEL.
The money used to lower tariffs comes from the renegotiation of so-called Use of Public Assets payments, or UBP under the Portuguese acronym. These are fees paid by certain hydropower operators to the federal government for the right to exploit Brazil’s rivers for electricity generation.
Under a new framework established by Law 15,235/2025, hydropower concessionaires were allowed to replace future UBP payments with upfront contributions to the Energy Development Account, known as CDE, a sector fund used to finance a range of electricity policies. In all, 24 hydropower concessions joined the renegotiation, generating a preliminary R$5.48 billion.
In practical terms, revenue that would otherwise have been collected over time has been brought forward and made available now to cushion electricity tariff increases in areas covered by Brazil’s Amazon Development Superintendency, Sudam, and Northeast Development Superintendency, Sudene.
ANEEL also established a benchmark called the Balanced Tariff Impact Limit, preliminarily set at 6.53%, to allocate the funds and prevent large disparities among tariff adjustments at the benefiting distributors. The calculation takes into account tariff adjustments already approved in 2025 as well as projections for 2026.
The transfers are handled by Brazil’s Electricity Trading Chamber, or CCEE. Amounts approved by ANEEL include roughly R$424.8 million for Energisa Rondônia, R$403.8 million for Enel Ceará, R$37.3 million for Energisa Acre and R$26.6 million for Energisa Tocantins. Sulgipe is set to receive approximately R$12.3 million.
That means the reduction in customers’ electricity bills does not, by itself, translate into an equivalent loss of recognized revenue for the distributors. The funds generated by the renegotiation are being transferred into the system specifically to finance the tariff relief.
Enel Ceará, Sulgipe and Energisa Tocantins had already gone through their annual tariff adjustments in the first half of 2026 but had not incorporated the UBP funds at the time. Their tariffs have now been recalculated following the transfer of the resources. In Acre and Rondônia, the new tariff impact relates to adjustments originally approved in 2025.
The measure effectively turns the renegotiation of hydropower concessions into a bridge between future electricity-sector revenues and today’s power bills. Under the legislation, the funds are intended to help reduce regulated electricity tariffs in the Sudam and Sudene regions during 2025 and 2026.
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