Sociedade Anonima de Eletrificacao da Paraiba (SAELPA)

active

SAELPA is the electricity concessionaire of the state of Paraiba with generation, transmission and distribution functions. The company provides electricity to 715,000 customers in 217 municipalities. SAELPA has 47 substations, 1,192-KM of transmission lines and a 4,315-KM distribution network. In Nov. 2000, Cataguases, through its subsidiary Energipe, acquired 87.63% of SAELPA's shares for US$ 185.6 million. The remaining shares are held by the state-owned Eletrobras (13%), by the municipalities (2%) and other shareholders (3%). In Jan. 2001, Alliant Energy acquired 49.9% of the shares of PBPART-SE 1, the holding that was previously fully-owned by Energipe and which controls SAELPA (Alliant Energy paid Energipe US$ 110 million for this equity participation). In April 2006, Alliant Energy sold its stake in the company to Cataguazes-Leopoldina. In 2008, Companhia Forca e Luz Cataguases-Leopoldina was renamed Grupo Energisa because of the regulatory decision that a single company cannot operate in different segments of the energy market. Grupo Energisa's ownership structure is the following: Gipar S.A. (65.8%), Gaster Participações S/A (22.3%), Eletrobras (1.2%), Itacatu S.A. (5.9%), BNDES (0.7%) and other small shareholders (4.1%). The project company's name was also changed to Energisa Paraiba - Distribuidora de Energia S/A. As of December 2009, the project company was wholly-owned subsidiary of Grupo Energisa. In 2000, after investing US$ 6.4 million (R$ 12.5 million) in its facilities the company reach the mark of 719,708 consumers units. The total electricity consumption in 2000 was 2,074,000 MWh. In 2001 the company invested US$ 20 million (R$ 44.7 million) in its facilities and had its consumers units increased to 772,985. However, as a consequence of the electricity rationing program carried out by the government, the total electricity consumption decreased to 1,952,000 MWh. The electricity rationing program was implemented by the government as a response to the electricity supply crises occurred in 2001. In 2002, with the end of the ration program in February, the total electricity consumption increased to 2,061,000 MWh, but it was still lower than the 2000 level. By the end the end of 2002 SELPA was supplying 792,328 consumers units. During that year the company invested US$ 15.5 million (R$ 45.4 million). "Luz Para Todos" a government sponsored program, has been excluded from investment figures in 2007.