Search for answers in extensive Brazil blackout
0in 0pt”>Still, energy experts in both countries said the widespread blackout showed the potential weaknesses in Brazil’s transmission system and the need for better management of the interconnected electrical grids. “This was a management failure,” said Ildo Sauer, a professor of energy at the University of São Paulo. “There is not a lack of generation capacity, there is not a lack of transmission capacity, there has not been a lack of investments” in the sector, he said. “What is lacking is management, command and control of the operations.”
Professor Sauer also said that the blackouts showed that reforms of the electrical grid made in 2003 and 2004, after a series of blackouts, “were not sufficient.”
The system failure was reminiscent of the blackout of 2003 in the American Northeast and Midwest, the country’s widest electrical blackout in history, affecting 10 million people in Ontario, Canada, and 45 million people in eight American states.
For Brazilians, Tuesday’s blackout brought back painful memories of energy shortages in 2001, which led the country to intensify its push for more supplies of natural gas and hydroelectric power. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, then the president, instituted nine months of energy rationing, and the country’s energy shortcomings were blamed for a considerable decline in Cardoso’s popularity as he ended his second term in office. With this in mind, President Lula told reporters that “What happened in 2001 was that we didn’t produce enough energy and didn’t have the transmission lines to link the entire system in Brazil.”
Tuesday’s failure was not related to a shortage of energy, officials insisted, but a disruption in transmitting it. Since 2001 Brazil has diversified its energy supply and has avoided widespread shortages.
The failure occurred at 10:13 p.m. local time. It affected the southeast of Brazil most severely, leaving São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Espirito Santo completely without electricity. Blackouts also swept through parts of other states like Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Bahia, and Pernambuco, energy officials said. By 12:30 a.m. power had been restored to most areas.
Itaipú’s problems also affected parts of Argentina that share interconnections through Brazil and Paraguay. The plant supplies about 20 percent of Brazil’s power and 90 percent of the energy consumed by Paraguay.
As Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, and economic growth quickens, the blackout is sparking concern that its aging electricity sector will not keep pace, said Adriano Pires, head of the Brazilian Center for Infrastructure. We can’t discuss growth plans if we’re facing electricity disruptions,” Vanderlei Macris, a lawmaker from the opposition Social Democracy Party, said in a phone interview. “Brazil has announced huge investments like building a bullet train and hosting the World Cup and Olympics. It seems the country isn’t prepared enough for investments of this magnitude.”
In July, Lula agreed to triple to about $360 million the amount Brazil pays each year to Paraguay for the nearly 95 percent of the dam’s annual output it consumes, ending a dispute between the two countries over who benefits more.
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