By Brazil Stock Guide – São Paulo’s consumer protection authority has fined Enel Distribuição São Paulo R$14 million for failures in electricity supply during two major outage periods at the end of 2025, according to an administrative decision issued on Tuesday (14).
The penalty covers service disruptions recorded between Sunday (21) and Tuesday (23) in September, and again from Sunday (8) to Saturday (14) in December. In both cases, customers were left without power for more than 48 hours, a breach of service obligations under Brazil’s consumer protection rules.
Enel Distribuição São Paulo, a unit of Italy-based Enel SpA (ENEL IM), has now accumulated nine fines since 2019, when it took over electricity distribution in 24 municipalities across the São Paulo metropolitan area, including the state capital.
The Procon-SP authority said the company’s own responses to formal customer complaints confirmed shortcomings in service delivery, particularly the extended duration of outages. The agency is also reviewing additional complaints related to customer service during blackout periods.
December blackout hit 4.4 million Enel customers in São Paulo
Enel SpA’s São Paulo distribution unit said a December blackout triggered by an extratropical cyclone affected 4.4 million customers across the state, revising earlier figures that cited half that number.
The utility said the storm, which struck on Sunday (10), caused widespread damage to power lines amid strong winds, leading to rolling outages as repairs were carried out. Enel had initially reported that 2.2 million customers were affected, a figure that reflected the peak number of users disconnected simultaneously during the event.
According to the company, the higher total represents the cumulative number of customers impacted over the entire restoration period. As crews restored service to some areas, other customers were cut off as the storm continued to strain the grid. “As the company reconnected customers who had lost power, others were successively impacted by the force of the winds,” Enel said.
The company added that the consolidated figure was calculated after a full review of operational data, including information from automated grid systems that record outages and, in some cases, restore power immediately without the need for field crews. “The cumulative number of disconnections is calculated afterward, as it includes analysis of automation systems that recorded and restored units immediately, without intervention by field teams,” the company said.
Enel said the finalized data were submitted on Thursday (19) to Brazil’s electricity regulator, the National Electric Energy Agency, and will be subject to an audit as part of the regulator’s oversight process. Enel SpA is listed in Milan under the ticker ENEL IM.
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