The 1999 Southern Brazil blackout was a widespread power outage (the largest ever at the time) that started in Brazil on March 11 and lasted until June 22, 1999. [ citation needed ]
The blackout involved São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Rio Grande do Sul, affecting an estimated 75 to 97 million people. [1] [2] A chain reaction was started when a lightning strike occurred at 22h 16m at an electricity substation in Bauru, São Paulo State causing most of the 440kV circuits at the substation to trip. Brazil was undergoing a severe investment crisis during 1999, which limited spending on maintenance and expansion of the power grid. With few routes for the power to flow from the generating stations via the 440kV system (a very important system to São Paulo state, carrying electricity generated by the Paraná river) many generators automatically shut down because they did not have any load. The world's biggest power plant at the time, Itaipu, tried to support the load that was no longer being supplied by the 440kV power plants, but the 750kV AC lines and the 600kV DC lines that connected the plant to the rest of the system could not take the load and tripped too. [3]
South of São Paulo the consumers experienced an overfrequency, caused because they had more generation than load, mostly because Itaipu was now connected only to this sub-system, but that problem was automatically solved by all generators in the area, that reduced their loads.
The rest of the system experienced a much bigger problem, an underfrequency, since the system had a lot of load and not enough generation capacity. Some generators tripped because of the overfrequency, which aggravated the problem, and after an automatic rejection of 35% of the sub-system load the underfrequency did not go away. This caused the system to break in many pieces, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states were split with a few areas remaining online. Most of the Minas Gerais system remained online, and powered Brazil's capital, Brasília, as well as the state of Goias and some of Espirito Santo.
In Rio, the military police placed 1,200 men in the streets to avoid looting. [4] In São Paulo, traffic authorities announced they closed the city's tunnels to prevent robberies. More than 60,000 people were on Rio's subway when lights went out.
At midnight, power began returning to some areas. [5]
The Itaipu Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. It is the third largest hydroelectric dam in the world, and holds the 45th largest reservoir in the world.
The Brazilian Highway System is a network of trunk roads administrated by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Brazil (MINFRA). It is constructed, managed and maintained by the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT), federal agency linked to the Ministry of Infrastructure, and the public works departments of state governments.
The Paranaíba River is a Brazilian river whose source lies in the state of Minas Gerais in the Mata da Corda mountains, municipality of Rio Paranaíba, at an altitude of 1,148 meters; on the other face of this mountain chain are the sources of the Abaeté river, tributary of the São Francisco River. The length of the river is approximately 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) up to the junction with the Grande River, both of which then form the Paraná River, at the point that marks the borders of the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Mato Grosso do Sul.
Manihot is a genus in the diverse milkspurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It was described as a genus in 1754.
Dyckia is a genus of plants in the family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Pitcairnioideae.
Companhia de Transmissão de Energia Elétrica Paulista is one of transmission system operators of electric power grid in Brazil. The company is headquartered in São Paulo.
Stomatanthes is a genus of African and South American plants in the tribe Eupatorieae within the family Asteraceae.
The 2009 Brazil and Paraguay blackout was a power outage that occurred throughout much of Brazil and for a short time the entirety of Paraguay, on Tuesday, November 10, to Friday, 20 November, 2009, at approximately 22:15 BST. The blackout affected an estimated 60 million people in Brazil.
Eletrobras Furnas is a regional power utility and a major subsidiary of Eletrobras. The company generates or transmits electricity to 51% of households in Brazil and more than 40% of the nation's electricity passes through their grid. The company has a generating capacity of 10,050 MW which corresponds to 10% of Brazil's electrical production.
Rede Energia was a Brazil-based utility holding dedicated on electricity energy, is one of the biggest Brazilian electricity companies.
Algar Telecom is a Brazilian telecommunications company present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, and in the Federal District as well. The company is the only operator that remained private, even after the creation of Telebrás in the military regime, and it is characterized as the fifth largest company in the telecommunications segment. It serves more than one million and four hundred thousand customers - individuals, micro and small businesses, corporate customers, and carriers.
Events from the year 2008 in Brazil.
Miss Brazil 2013, the 59th edition of the Miss Brazil pageant, was held in Belo Horizonte on September 28, 2013. The winner was Jakelyne Oliveira, who represented Brazil in the 2013 Miss Universe pageant. Twenty-six delegates from each state and the Federal District competed for the crown. The previous titleholder, Gabriela Markus of Rio Grande do Sul, crowned her successor at the end of the event.
Events in the year 2009 in Brazil.
Events in the year 2001 in Brazil.
Events in the year 1996 in Brazil.
Events in the year 1997 in Brazil.
Events in the year 1984 in Brazil.