MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil can’t explain the four hours massive blackout

The country’s three main states and 80 cities were left completely in the dark

The world’s largest operational hydroelectric dam, Itaipú which on Tuesday caused a four hours blackout in 16 of Brazil’s 27 states and most of Paraguay was back in full production early morning Wednesday but authorities have so far remained silent about the causes of the major turnoff.

At 08:00 GMT Wednesday Itaipú was back in operation with 18 of its 20 generators in production totalling 10.450 MW said an official release from the managing office. The dam is shared by neighbouring Brazil and Paraguay and supplies 19.7% of all Brazilian power and 87.3% of Paraguay’s.

Itaipu president Jorge Samek denied that the blackout was caused by the plant pointing out power continued to be generated but could not be connected to the grid for still unknown reasons.

It was the first time in Itaipú’s history that all generators were shut down. The blackout officially started at 22:13 Brazilian time and left most of country in the dark including the main cities, Sao Paulo, Rio does Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and even part of the capital Brasilia. International airports were closed down until Wednesday morning.

Mining and Energy minister Edison Lobao said the problem could have been caused by “atmospheric problems” or “very intense storms” which affected the grids.

“The meteorological problem could have disconnected Itaipu from the transmission systems and this had a domino effect on the whole national power integrated system” said Lobao.

The complete blackout extended to the states of Sao Paulo, Rio do Janeiro, Minias Gerais, Espiritu Santo, Goias, Pernambuco, Parana, Matto Grosso and South Matto Grosso plus areas of the Brasilia Federal District.

Other states that were exposed include Santa Catarina, Río Grande do Sul, Bahía, Rondonia, Alagoas and Acre.

It is estimated 100 million people suffered the consequences of the mega blackout.

However in spite of the chaos, lack of transport, traffic accidents and some emergency and panic situations no major incidents were reported. Federal and state governments recommended people to remain at home and reinforced street patrolling.