Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: CLÁUDIA NATALINA PORTAL DE MATOS

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : CLÁUDIA NATALINA PORTAL DE MATOS
DATE: 30/10/2025
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: remota
TITLE:

Electricity Theft in Brazil as an Economic and Legal Problem: a Study

KEY WORDS:

Administrative Law. Constitutional Law. Economic approaches to law. Energy Regulation. Non-Technical Losses. Unrecoverable Revenues. ASROs. Legal Analysis of Economic Policy. Positional Analysis. Portfolio Analysis.

PAGES: 131
BIG AREA: Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
AREA: Direito
SUMMARY:

The Brazilian electricity sector, regulated by the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL), faces significant structural challenges, particularly in regions referred to by the agency as Areas of Severe Operational Restrictions (ASROs), where the presence of the State is limited and interference by criminal groups in the provision of energy distribution services is frequent. These regions are characterized by high levels of Non-Technical Losses (NTLs) of electricity, resulting from theft and fraud in the system, as well as Irrecoverable Revenues (IRs), which stem from chronic non-payment. In 2024 alone, losses in the sector amounted to BRL 10.3 billion due to NTLs and BRL 4.8 billion due to IRs. This situation particularly affected distribution concessionaires such as Light and Enel RJ, while also generating impacts on consumers, who ultimately bear part of the financial burden. The current regulatory model of the electricity sector – based on incentive regulation, a socio-economic complexity index, and performance benchmarking among distribution concessionaires – has proved insufficient to address these realities. This shortcoming compromises both the property rights of the aforementioned distribution companies and consumers’ rights to fair tariffs and adequate services. The underlying hypothesis is that ANEEL’s regulatory models for NTLs and IRs – although they use a socio-economic complexity index in their calculation methodology to set efficiency targets for distribution concessionaires – do  not adequately reflect the local realities of the concession areas. This has led to the following research question: how can a legal response concerning NTLs and IRs be formulated in a way that simultaneously upholds (i) the effectiveness of the property rights of distribution concessionaires and (ii) the enjoyment of the right to access electricity by residents of low-income communities located in ASROs – which, in the present case, are areas under the control of militias and drug trafficking organisations in Brazil? To address this problem, the general objective of this study is to analyse the regulatory model adopted by ANEEL and thereby characterise the set of facts related to NTLs and IRs from the perspective of the Legal Analysis of Economic Policy (AJPE). The methodology adopted follows a qualitative–quantitative approach, as it includes a documentary analysis of laws, ANEEL resolutions (especially Normative Resolution No. 1,091/2024), technical reports and notes, as well as the interpretation of statistics, measurements, tariff components, and historical series of NTLs and IRs published by ANEEL. Additionally, this research employed Positional Analysis and Portfolio Analysis (both tools of AJPE) to interpret regulatory dynamics and test the research hypothesis. Among the expected results are … … … … … … Finally, this work also aims to contribute to the debate on the reformulation of ANEEL’s regulatory model, with a view to incorporating new institutional, social, and public security dimensions.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externo à Instituição - EDUARDO SAAD DINIZ - USP-RB
Externo à Instituição - HUGO LUÍS PENA FERREIRA - UFJ
Presidente - 6136043 - MARCUS FARO DE CASTRO