Date | 10–20 November 2009 |
---|---|
Location | Most of Brazil and Paraguay |
Type | Power outage |
Cause | Meteorological events |
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, [1] on Tuesday, November 10, to Friday, 20 November, 2009, at approximately 22:15 BST. [2] The blackout affected an estimated 60 million people in Brazil. [3]
Thousands of passengers were stranded as metro trains came to a halt and buses failed to cope with the volume of passengers. There were widespread reports of road accidents as street lighting and traffic lights failed. [4] The blackout began about 22:15 on Tuesday and lasted until about 02:45 on Wednesday in São Paulo, although power was restored gradually in some places from before midnight. [5] [6]
Heavy rains and strong winds caused three transformers on a key high-voltage transmission line to short circuit, cutting the line and automatically causing the complete loss of 14 GW of power and the shutdown of the Itaipu Dam for the first time in its 25-year history. [7] [8] The power cut, which Brazilian officials said affected 18 of the country's 26 states, brought chaos to cities including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Campo Grande and Vitória. [9]
Media such as Slashdot [10] and 60 Minutes reported [11] that the outage was the work of hackers. However, in December, 2010, a leaked US diplomatic cable suggested otherwise and indicated that the longest outage was 6 hours, in São Paulo, and details interim reports on what failures caused the outage, and responses under consideration. [11]
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arranged an emergency commission to enquire into the cause of the blackout. [12] The blackout also unleashed a political stir as the Minister of Energy has been summoned to testify before Congress. [13]
The Itaipu Dam is shared with Paraguay. In the immediate aftermath of its failure, interconnecting lines to Paraguay's other large powerplant, the Yacyreta Dam (in the border with Argentina), also failed. All of the country's territory was affected by the blackout. [14] [15]
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 Paraná River (Portuguese: Rio Paraná ; is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some 4,880 kilometres. Among South American rivers, it is second in length only to the Amazon River. It merges with the Paraguay River and then farther downstream with the Uruguay River to form the Río de la Plata and empties into the Atlantic Ocean.
Foz do Iguaçu is the Brazilian city on the border of Iguaçu Falls. The city is the 7th largest in the state of Paraná. The city's population is approximately 258,000. It is approximately 650 km (400 mi) west of the capital of the state, Curitiba, being the westernmost city in that state.
The Brazilian Highway System is a network of trunk roads administered by the Ministry of Transport of Brazil. 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 HVDC Itaipu is a High-voltage direct current overhead line transmission system in Brazil from the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant to the region of São Paulo. The project consists of two ±600 kV bipoles, each with a rated power of 3150 MW, which transmit power generated at 50 Hz from the Paraguay side of the Itaipu Dam to the Ibiúna converter station near São Roque, São Paulo. The system was put in service in several steps between 1984 and 1987, and remains among the most important HVDC installations in the world.
Eletrobras is a major Brazilian electric utilities company. The company's headquarters are located in Rio de Janeiro.
The 1999 Southern Brazil blackout was a widespread power outage that started in Brazil on March 11 and lasted until June 22, 1999.
Brazil–Paraguay relations are foreign relations between Brazil and Paraguay.
Itaipu Lake is a lake on the Brazil-Paraguay border, artificially formed in 1982 on the Paraná River with the closing of the gates of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Dam detour channel. It covers an area of 1,350 km2 (520 sq mi), 770 km2 (300 sq mi) on the Brazilian side and 580 km2 (220 sq mi) on the Paraguayan side. It also includes 66 small islands, 44 of which are on the Brazilian side and 22 on the Paraguayan side of the border.
Events in the year 2009 in Brazil.
Events in the year 1982 in Brazil.
Events in the year 1973 in Brazil.
Events in the year 1974 in Brazil.
The Lagoa São Paulo Reserve is an ecological reserve in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It was created in 1942, but over the years suffered considerable degradation by illegal invasions and squatters. It was largely flooded after construction of the Eng Sérgio Motta Dam on the Paraná River. Only a small part of the original reserve remains, but some efforts are being made to restore it.
Nationwide recurring electrical blackouts in Venezuela began in March 2019. Experts and state-run Corpoelec sources attribute the electricity shortages to lack of maintenance and to a lack of technical expertise in the country resulting from a brain drain; Nicolás Maduro's administration attributes them to sabotage. Since March, various nationwide blackouts occurred in the country.
On 16 June 2019, a large-scale power outage struck most of Argentina, all of Uruguay, and parts of Paraguay, leaving an estimated total of 48 million people without electrical supply.
Events in the year 2020 in Brazil.
João Augusto Chagas Pestana was a Brazilian engineer and business leader. A key player in the partial privatization of Brazil's energy sector at the turn of the century, Pestana was the first Chairman of the Board of the company Rio Grande Energia, now part of CPFL Energia.
The 2023 Brazil blackout was a power outage that occurred across Brazil on 15 August 2023 at 8:30 Brasília Time (UTC−03:00). It interrupted approximately 19 gigawatts of electric load, which was approximately 27% of the total load at that moment.