Brazil: A fire at an Eletrobras power substation in southern Brazil caused a major blackout early on 14 October, disrupting electricity supply across several regions and cutting around 10,000 MW of load, according to Brazil’s national grid operator ONS.
The incident began in a reactor at the southern substation, leading to a shutdown of the facility and disconnection of a key regional network that had been exporting about 5,000 MW to other parts of the country.
The South lost approximately 1,600 MW, while automatic protection mechanisms triggered further disconnections to rebalance the system, including 1,900 MW in the Northeast, 1,600 MW in the North, and 4,800 MW in the Southeast.
Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira described the event as an isolated infrastructure issue, not an energy shortage. “We have greater energy security. This was a one-off episode that ONS responded to promptly,” he said on local television.
ONS confirmed that equipment restoration and load recovery were conducted safely, with power fully restored within two and a half hours.
Eletrobras stated that it is cooperating with ONS to determine the cause of the fire and to assess how it led to broader instability in the national interconnected system. Electricity distributors, including Light and Enel São Paulo, reported that more than 1.3 million consumers were affected.
Source: Reuters
