Differential requests judicial recovery with debts of R$ 154 million
The crisis of free market companies has claimed a new victim. Differential Comercializadora de Energia filed a request for judicial recovery in the Rio de Janeiro Court involving liabilities of R$ 154.4 million.
In the action to which CNN had access, the group states that regulatory changes, increased volatility in the PLD (Difference Settlement Price), loss of liquidity in the ACL (Free Contracting Environment) and default by counterparties led the company to a serious economic and financial crisis.
The request also involves the companies Diferencial Energia Participações and Marina Grande Participações. The group has been operating in the electricity sector since 2005 and claims to have handled around R$6 billion in energy purchase and sale contracts over two decades, with more than 4,500 counterparties.
In the initial petition, the company maintains that the sector is going through "profound instability experienced by the entire Brazilian electricity trading sector" in recent years, marked by the disorganization of the free energy market and regulatory and methodological changes that directly affected the formation of the PLD.
The document cites reports and articles written by CNN that contextualize the systemic crisis that the market is experiencing. Among the factors highlighted are changes in CVaR parameters, an acronym in English that indicates the mechanism used in energy price formation models, in addition to the increase in the preventive activation of thermoelectric plants and the preservation of reservoirs, which, according to the company, significantly increased operating costs and market volatility.
According to Diferencial, the PLD's new behavior began to register abrupt fluctuations throughout the same day, with higher prices at night and lower during the day, breaking the historical logic of compensation between positive and negative energy positions.
The company states that this scenario reduced the ACL's liquidity and made it difficult to reconstitute contractual positions, making the purchase of energy necessary to honor contracts already signed more expensive.
The document also highlights impacts caused by the insolvency of other suppliers. According to the company, the crisis was worsened after losses of energy purchase contracts related to the financial situation of América Energia, in September 2025, and BID Comercializadora, in January 2026, in addition to being affected by the default of Gama Comercializadora, following a court decision that allowed the company to keep unpaid contracts registered with the CCEE (Electric Energy Commercialization Chamber).
The group also requested urgent protection to prevent the possible dismissal of Diferencial from CCEE staff due to default in the Short-Term Market. The company argues that the exclusion of the CCEE would have effects equivalent to the compulsory stoppage of operations, since operations in the free market depend on the registrations, accounting and settlements carried out by the Chamber.
"The exclusion/disconnection of the Differential Applicant from the CCEE staff will result in the most serious measure possible: it will prevent the carrying out of new operations, the management of ongoing contracts and the operation itself in the free energy market", states the petition.
In addition to operational protection, the group requested the release of around R$1.3 million in resources currently blocked in favor of Aurum FIDC/KS, claiming that the debt linked to the guarantees would have already been fully paid off before the judicial recovery was filed.
Source: CNN