Brazil normalized electricity service throughout the country, hours after suffering a blackout that left many cities in the dark on Tuesday, official sources reported. The northern and northeastern regions, the most affected by the failure in the power supply, had recovered normal levels at 2:30 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. GMT), six hours after the system failed, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy. .
The Ministry of Mines and Energy reported that the supply of 16,000 megawatts of energy was interrupted in the national electricity network, corresponding to 26% of the load that was in place at the time, due to a problem not yet identified.
The cities most affected were those in the northeast and north of the country, although the electrical problems also spread to specific areas of large metropolises in the southeast such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, as well as Brasilia.
In São Paulo, power outages caused slowdowns and delays on various subway lines, causing crowds at stations at peak hour.
The interruption of the power supply began at 8:31 a.m. local time and about 45 minutes later the recovery of the electric charge began, according to a statement from the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
As of 10:22 a.m. local time, normal power levels had been restored in the south and southeast of Brazil, while in the northern and northeastern states, service had been restored in 27% and 68%, respectively, of the affected cities. .
The National Operator of the Electric System (ONS), in charge of the operational control of the network, indicated that 7,000 megawatts, almost half of the total affected, had already been restored.
Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira, who is accompanying President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Asuncion for the inauguration ceremony of Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, determined the creation of a special group to deal with the emergency.
The general director of the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel, regulator), Sandoval de Araújo Feitosa, declared during an event in which he was participating in Brasilia that the blackout was "of great magnitude."
The blackout affected almost all states in the country, with the exception of the Amazonian state of Roraima (north), whose supply depends on the Venezuelan network, but the impact of the problem was not felt strongly in the large cities of the southeast.
