The government is offering rewards of R$2.4 billion to those who saved energy in 2021

The government is offering a bounty of R$2.4 billion to consumers who saved electricity in January. There are 35.3 million homes, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which saved electricity consumption last year.

The so-called consumer premium generated savings that offset the annual consumption of the state of Paraíba or Rio Grande do Norte. 5.6 million megawatts saved is enough to supply 32.8 million households per month. The value also corresponds to 3.81% of the maximum storage capacity in the southeastern/midwestern subsystem, which is considered the ‘water reservoir’ in Brazil.

Bonus though, data from Abraceel (the Brazilian Association of Energy Dealers), which UOL also had access to, shows that the electric bill has more than doubled inflation since 2015: residential tariffs are up 114%, a difference of 137% for for inflation in the same period (48%).

In the period analyzed – from 2015 to 2021 – the cost of residential electricity rose, on average, 16.3% per year. The IPCA (Expanded Consumer Price Index), the country’s official inflation, changed by 6.7% annually.

In 2021, energy was up 21.21% and one of the main factors responsible for the rally was in the IPCA, which closed the year at 10.06% – well above the central bank’s target of 3.75%, with a tolerance of 1.5 percentage points up or down (i.e. could be up or down). range between 2.25% and 5.25%).