Análises inter e intradistribuidoras para gerenciamento de recursos no ganho de eficiência

Abstract

The electricity distribution sector in Brazil has the characteristic of a natural monopoly and needs economic regulation. The mechanism adopted for tariff regulation is the Periodic Tariff Review (RTP), carried out by the National Regulatory Agency. Currently, the efficiency analysis method applied at RTP is the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), already used by other countries in the evaluation of efficiency in energy utilities. Utilities classified as inefficient by the DEA must direct their efforts to win efficiency by looking at practices from the utilities classified by efficient by the DEA. This study proposes an efficiency analysis focused on improving the current methodology at RTP and suggests tools that may be useful in providing strategies to improve efficiency. The analyzes presented here focus on two levels: sectorial and corporate. At the sectorial level, an efficiency analysis is proposed, in which each utility is considered as a Decision-Making Unit (DMU) in the DEA and compared with each other. This efficiency analysis between utilities delimited the database defined by the regulator. The study also applies the concept of 'clustering' the set of DMUs by the k-means method, showing the effect that a reduction of DMUs` set causes in the efficiency analysis. Finally, the impact of DEA efficiency is measured quantitatively on the utilities' regulatory operating costs (COR). At the corporate level, an innovative internal benchmarking is proposed, named here self-efficiency analysis. This analysis splits the utility into smaller parts (regional), and these parts are considered the DMUs in the DEA. The idea of splitting the concession area into smaller areas is to incorporate the effect of environmental characteristics (such as lightning incidence and vegetation height) in the efficiency analysis. The thesis presents a case study for a utility in São Paulo. The self-efficiency analysis, therefore, defines efficiency gain strategy by indicating the most inefficient areas inside the utility. The study also applies two other benchmarking techniques, the Cross-efficiency Analysis and the Ratio-based Efficiency Analysis. The CEA and REA studies bring new efficiency indicators for efficiency analysis between utilities and self-efficiency analysis.