Brazilian blackoutSearch for answers in extensive Brazil blackout
Published 13 November 2009 A huge power failure involving the world’s largest operating hydroelectric plant earlier this week cut off electricity to 18 of 26 states in Brazil, including the country’s two largest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro; tens of millions of people were affected; failure exposed the vulnerability of Brazil’s electricity infrastructure
We wrote the other day about an on-going debate regarding 2005 and 2007 blackouts in Brazil which affected millions of residents. Some experts say the blackouts were the work of hackers who managed to infiltrate Brazil’s grid, while government officials and the utility involved insist the blackouts were the result of soot collecting on insulators (see “Cyber Attacks Caused Power Outages in Brazil” and “Brazilian Blackout Was Caused by Sooty Insulators, Not Hackers” , bot in 10 November 2009 HSNW).
Now there is a new chapter in this debate. A huge power failure involving the world’s largest operating hydroelectric plant this week was the worst in its twenty-five years of use, Brazilian officials said Wednesday, causing widespread blackouts that exposed the vulnerability of Brazil’s electricity infrastructure.
Officials in Brazil and Paraguay were still searching for answers late Wednesday to explain the failure at the 14,000-megawatt Itaipú plant, which straddles the border between the countries along the Paraná River and is a critical source of power for both nations.
The
New York Times’s Alexei Barrionuevo
writes that for more than two hours late Tuesday, the failure of three transmission lines that deliver power from the plant created a domino effect, cutting off electricity to 18 of 26 states in Brazil, including the country’s two largest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Tens of millions of people were affected. Airports in several cities were briefly shut down and passengers had to be pulled from subway cars in São Paulo when the system lost power.
Much of Paraguay, which suffered several brief power failures in the past week, was also blacked out Tuesday night for about twenty minutes.
Electricity system operators said that there was no evidence of sabotage and that the most likely cause was an unexplained atmospheric disturbance, like heavy rains or winds in the area. “The system is not fragile, it is one of the strongest and most secure in the world,” said Edison Lobão, Brazil’s energy minister. The Brazilian director of Itaipu,
Jorge Samek, told
TV Globo last night that it was the first time that transmission from the
world’s largest dam by output was forced to shut down since power began to flow in 1983.
