Power failure in Brazil leaves millions in the dark

World's second-biggest electricity generator fails, affecting Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro, the city that will host the World Cup and Olympics

Bradley Brooks
Rio de Janeiro — The Associated Press, Nov. 10, 2009

A massive power failure blacked out Brazil's two largest cities and other parts of Latin America's biggest nation for more than two hours late Tuesday, leaving millions of people in the dark after a huge hydroelectric dam suddenly went offline.

Paraguay was also affected when the Itaipu dam straddling the two nations' border stopped producing 17,000 megawatts of power, resulting in outages in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and at least several other big Brazilian cities, Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said. He said outages hit nine of the 27 states in a country of more than 190 million people.

The cause of the failure had not been determined, but Mr. Lobao said strong storms uprooted trees near the Itaipu dam just before it went offline and could be to blame. Rio was the hardest hit city, he said.

At 12:37 a.m. local time Wednesday, the lights in Rio's Copacabana neighbourhood roared back to life, prompting cheers and thunderous car honking.

“It's sad to see such a beautiful city with such a precarious infrastructure,” said Igor Fernandes, a shirtless 22-year-old law student peddling his bike down a dark Copacabana beach. “This shouldn't happen in a city that is going to host the Olympic Games.”

Mr. Lobao said the hydro plant at the dam itself was working, but there were problems with the power lines that carry electricity across Brazil. Brazil uses almost all of the energy produced by the dam, and Paraguay consumes the rest.

In Paraguay, the national energy agency blamed the blackout on a short-circuit at an electrical station near Sao Paulo, saying that failure shut down the entire power grid supplied by Itaipu. All of Paraguay went dark for about 20 minutes, the country's leading newspaper, ABC Color, reported.

The company in charge of the dam, Itaipu Binacional, said the blackout did not start at the hyrdoelectric complex. It said the most likely cause was a failure at one or more points in the transmission system.

The blackouts came three days after CBS's 60 Minutes news program reported that several past Brazilian power outages were caused by hackers. Brazilian officials had played down the report before the latest outages, and Mr. Lobao did not mention it.

Brazil's official Agencia Brasil news agency said Tuesday's outage started about 10:20 p.m., snarling streets in Rio, where normally chaotic traffic turned riotous. Cars, taxis and buses zoomed through dark intersections, honking to let their presence known as they zoomed through. Pedestrians scampered across avenues, and tourists scurried back to a handful of luxury beach hotels, the only buildings with light.

Flavia Alvin, 37, a shopkeeper in Copacabana, waited with her co-workrs for the blackout to end before making the long bus ride home to western Rio. Asked if she was worried about violence or looting, she shook her head and pulled her young daughter closer.

“I've heard of problems like rioting in other places with blackouts, but Brazilians are more relaxed,” she said. “All I can do is wait here and drink a beer.”

That was what a crowd was doing at the Eclipse restaurant, a block from Copacabana beach. Drinking quickly warming beer beat sitting in a sweltering apartment, said Paulo Viera, 35, a graphic designer. But he worried about how the outage might look for a city that last month was picked to host the 2016 Olympics and will be the showcase city for soccer's World Cup in 2014.

“The image of Brazil, of Rio, is bad enough with all the violence,” he said. “We don't need this to happen. I don't know how it could get worse.”

Subway service was knocked out in both Rio and Sao Paulo, and G1 said Sao Paulo subway users were forced to abandon train cars.

In the city of Taguatinga near the national capital of Brasilia, a second division Brazilian league soccer game was halted after lights illuminating the field went dark. No power outages happened in Brasilia.

Utility companies that provide electricity for Rio and Sao Paulo did not immediately offer explanations for why the power went off or when it would be restored, Agencia Brasil said.

Sao Paulo is South America's largest city, with 12 million residents. Rio has 6 million citizens. But the metropolitan areas of both cities are much larger. Also affected was Belo Horizonte in central Brazil and the northeastern city of Recife.

The Itaipu dam is the world's second biggest hydroelectric producer, supplying 20 per cent of Brazil's electricity. China's Three Gorges dam is the largest.

Al-Jazeera blog on Brazil blackouts, mentions protests against large-scale dam expansion in the region which government & corporations will use as leverage to push through construction of hydro-electric project... also mentions potential of hackers being possible cause of blackout...

Brazil Blackout
By Gabriel Elizondo, November 11, 2009 [Al-Jazeera blog]

http://http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2009/11/11/brazil-blackout

For those of you who have never been to Sao Paulo, and can’t imagine what the city would be like in total darkness, just imagine New Delhi totally without power. Or Los Angeles, Mexico City, or Bangkok.

Blackout. Simple as that.

By now, you probably heard the news that Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and cities in 18 different Brazilian states were plunged into darkness last night with a massive power outage.

I am in Sao Paulo now, but when I heard the news last night, I was in the Houston, Texas airport waiting to board a flight back home. But from those I have spoken to since returning to Brazil this morning, it was a scary night that caused panic on the streets but no major public security incidents.

For those of you who have never been to Sao Paulo, and can’t imagine what the city would be like in total darkness, just imagine New Delhi totally without power. Or Los Angeles, Mexico City, or Bangkok.

Sao Paulo is South America’s largest city and the financial capital of the region. Fortunately, all power is restored and besides shaken nerves, no damage was done from the outage. But that hasn’t stopped intense media coverage and President Lula asking tough questions of his ministers.

There are two take-aways form last night’s events:

Number One: In a previous blog post I commented how Brazil will be under incredible international scrutiny now that the country will host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.

You get awarded those events; you also get the scrutiny of your country that comes along with them. Brazil has figured this out real quick over the past month.

Take for example the Daily Mail's headline "Eerie evening for Brazil as power outage plunges future home of Olympics into late-night blackout." I imagine the words "home of the Olympics" will be in just about every headline about Rio in the coming years.

Obviously, the questions being asked today are: Is Brazil ready? And doomsday insinuations such as, “What happens if there is a major outage during the opening ceremony?”

All these questions are legitimate, but let’s not forget these international events are years down the road. Brazil has time to fix its problems.

But make no mistake; no longer will problems in Brazil be overlooked on the international stage. They will be front page. A recent report by CBS's "60 Minutes" on cyber terrorism even mentioned Brazil’s hydroelectric grid being vulnerable to cyber attack.

There is no indications the recent outage was cyber attack related, but it was certainly noted in many quarters that the outage was less than 3 days after the CBS report aired.

Number Two: In another previous blog post, I wrote about how there are groups in Brazil pushing back against the government’s plans to build massive new hydroelectric dams in the Amazon. (The cause of Tuesday night’s outage was a problem with transmission lines from the massive Itaipu dam, the second largest in the world.)

I promised to expand on the why the government would push for more dams and risk permanently altering the natural environment. Last night said it all. Brazilian energy officials say they need more dams to power growth to meet energy needs and avoid blackouts.

Critics have long said that simply is not true. I am not sure who is right, but I am positive the recent outage will be used as leverage for those people who support the building of more dams. They will say, “See, we need more dams to fix this problem.”

For now, all is back to normal in Brazil. We have electricity. But nightfall is coming soon, and I plan to keep a flashlight handy tonight.

Just in case.