Abstract:
The Brazilian electricity sector is going through a revolution in face of modernization challenges, needs for investments in smart grids, insertion of new technologies and distributed energy resources. In this context, it is relevant to discuss the mechanisms to stimulate the efficiency of the investments made by the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos), as well as the formulation of practices and concepts (a frame-work) that help companies in the electricity sector to act. According to a regulatory strategy, capturing the incentives allowed, complying with regulatory requirements and seeking to maximize the benefits for the entire Brazilian society, providing trans-parency and lower tariff, since the costs of energy distribution activities are directly related to the management of the company's assets. Thus, when it comes to regula-tory asset management, there are several complex challenges to be solved or opti-mized. On one hand, the regulated companies' focus is to increase their remunera-tion base through investments in the network according to the concession, contracts, and on the other hand, the regulator's focus is to ensure that only prudent invest-ments are remunerated and to guarantee reasonable tariffs. This scenario is chal-lenging for both sides. Despite the maturity and conceptual evolution of the existing methodologies for asset management, the daily practice in concessionaires, espe-cially energy distributors, struggles against a variety of approaches to traditional prac-tices and, mainly, with the lack of an integrated approach that takes into account the complexity of the regulatory environment, and it is essential for these concession-aires to meet and understand this environment. One of the main contributions of this work is the formulation of an integrated regulatory asset management framework for distribution companies. Based on regulatory requirements, the investment remuner-ation mechanism and practices adopted by Brazilian distributors, the proposed framework unifies practices and presents concepts and standards that must be adopted considering the regulatory perspective in the management of their remuner-ation base.