Failure and High Consumption Cause Blackout in 10 States and the Federal District

01/20/2015 - 09h18

A combination of high consumption because of the heat and a failure in the power transmission system caused a blackout in 10 states and the Federal District (DF) around 3 p.m. on Monday (19).

With an overload in demand, the ONS (regulation body) has determined that the distributors cut off power to avoid the risk of a blackout of major proportions and a breakdown in the system.

The affected states were São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Santa Catarina. The outage lasted around and hour and a half.

Minister of Mines and Energy Eduardo Braga said a capacitor on the Furnas North-South transmission line burned at a peak consumption time in the Southeast. At the same time, there was a change in the region's network frequency for reasons that are still unclear.

"There was a peak of consumption; however, had there not been this technical problem, [the blackout] would not have occurred. This consumption peak happened last week and we had no problems."

In a statement, the ONS said that a "restriction in the transfer of energy in the North and Northeast regions to the Southeast region" brought about the fall of the "electric frequency" of the system, leading to the automatic shutdown of 11 plants in the country, which produce a total of 2,200 MW (megawatts).

The largest of the plants that were shutdown was the Angra 1 nuclear plant.

It is not possible to estimate exactly how many people were affected by the blackout. According to the ONS, the power outage "impacted less than 5% of the system load."

In the city of São Paulo, that on Monday (19) set the record for the highest temperature this summer at 36.5°C, two subway stations had to be closed because of lack of power.

Passengers were stuck on trains for up to 50 minutes with the air conditioning turned off. Many left the trains and walked through the tunnels, while others felt sick and had to be rescued.

Eletropaulo, which provides energy to the state capital, came to cut 700 MW of its distributed energy. CPFL cut another 800 MW, while Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency) says that 1 MW is enough to supply a home for one month.

Opposition legislators demanded explanations from the Dilma Rousseff administration and criticized the political machine of the electricity sector.

According to analysts contacted by Folha, there is a risk of further power cuts in the coming weeks, since the heat should continue and the low level of water in the reservoirs is critical.

High temperatures mainly in the Southeast have, since last summer, made the country's peak consumption register in the late afternoon, between 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., and no longer at night.

Translated by JILL LANGLOIS

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