The company offers special conditions that facilitate the entry of consumers with contracted demand from 500 kW into the Free Contracting Environment (Ambiente de Contratação Livre - ACL)
The Free Contracting Environment (ACL) is the
energy purchase alternative in which certain consumers can choose their energy
supplier with more economy, predictability, and even considering the
environmental attributes of the generation source. Supporting customers in
their business, Neoenergia offers its customers a simplified way to migrate,
using the Free Retail Market solution.
With this model, entrepreneurs from any state in the
country who have a contracted demand from 500 kW - the equivalent of an
electricity bill of approximately BRL 40 thousand, which can be the sum of more
than one bill from the same customer – are able to migrate to the free
contracting environment in a secure manner. This migration reduces
administrative expenses, in addition to reducing costs for consumers, who, if
they prefer, can buy energy from a specific source, such as wind generators or
solar energy.
In the Free Retail Market, the customer is represented
by Neoenergia at the Electric Energy Trading Chamber (Câmara de Comercialização
de Energia Elétrica - CCEE), ensuring more practicality in the migration
process, reducing bureaucracy and exempting from requirements such as paying
fees to the institution or having a special bank account. The simplified
solution meets the needs of businesses such as supermarkets or bakeries,
clinics, gas stations, shopping centers and industries with different profiles.
This is because the minimum demand of 500 kW can be considered at only one
point of consumption or through the so-called communion of interests in fact or
in law, that is, adding the demands of more than one consumer property with the
same CNPJ as a root, as in a head office with its branches.
According to the Brazilian Association of Energy
Traders (Abraceel), since 2003, the free market has provided savings of almost
30% compared to the costs of energy purchased in the regulated environment of
its local distributor. “Market liberalization is relentless. Today,
something around 34% of all energy consumed in Brazil is traded on the free
market in a freely negotiated manner, with the majority of customers being
those called special consumers, that is, those small customers who, acting with
the sharing of loads, can migrate to the unregulated market. This is the public
of our Free Retail Market solution. Through the retail trader, the
modernization of the sector becomes clear in terms of market liberalization,
bringing greater ease, less bureaucracy and guaranteeing the benefits that the
free market provides” , says Hugo Nunes, director of Liberalized Business
at Neoenergia.
This practice is also aligned with the company's corporate purpose, which is committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), primarily the supply of clean energy and the fight against climate change. Renewable sources account for almost 90% of the company's portfolio. In wind,the installed capacity will be tripled by 2023, reaching 1.6 GW.
Big consumers
Neoenergia also offers solutions for large ACL
consumers – those with contracted demand above 2 MW. One of them is the PPA
(Power Purchase Agreement), a long-term purchase and sale agreement for
renewable energy at a fixed price. “The market increasingly demands from
large companies actions centered on the pillars of ESG and clean energy can
make an important contribution in this process. For information only, in 2021
alone, we have sold more than 5 million certificates I-RECs, Renewable Energy
Certificates widely accepted in the global financial market to
demonstrate sustainable energy practices and balance greenhouse gas emissions”
, says Hugo Nunes.
Other business solutions offered by the company are energy management
and engineering, with connection services to the electrical system, in which it
carries out infrastructure projects, such as the construction of substations
and high voltage lines; correction of the power factor, to avoid penalties in
the energy bill; and adequacy of the metering and billing system to the rules
of the free market.