Brazil sues Italy's Enel for power outage reparations

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's solicitor general's office said on Friday that it is suing Italy's Enel for 260 million reais ($45.12 million) in collective restitution due to damages caused by last month's power outage in Sao Paulo, Latin America's largest city.

It also requested individual compensation for all consumer units that remained without power for more than 24 hours during the outage, with an estimated total cost of at least 757 million reais.

The requested individual compensation amount is of at least 500 reais per day per unit, to be paid through a discount on electricity bills.

Added to the collective compensation, the total amount to be requested from Enel could exceed 1 billion reais.

Millions of consumers were affected after a violent gale knocked down power lines and caused a blackout in Sao Paulo in October, with some of them left out of power for days.

Brazilian energy regulator Aneel opened an administrative process against Enel last month.

The Italian energy group said in response to a request for comment that it "reinforces its commitment to customers and reiterates it has long been investing to improve its services" in Brazil.

"From 2024 to 2026, the company has further increased its investments to an average of approximately 2 billion reais per year, totaling 6.2 billion reais," it added.

"The ongoing plan focuses on strengthening and modernizing the networks, automating systems, and expanding customer communication channels."

($1 = 5.7618 reais)

(Reporting by Leticia Fucuchima; Editing by Christina Fincher and Marguerita Choy)