Brazil power cut raises concerns for Rio Olympics
The outage, which hit at 10.15pm on Tuesday (12.15am Irish time on Wednesday) and lasted four to six hours, plunged nearly half the country into darkness.
An estimated 50 million people — more than a quarter of Brazil’s population (190 million) — were affected, mainly in the major cities in the southern part of the country, including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Off-duty police were called up as thousands were trapped in immobile elevators and subway trains. Cars were forced to nose through intersections, made dangerous by suddenly extinguished traffic lights. Some cafes closed out of fear of a nocturnal crime wave.
Power was mostly returned before dawn, though several areas remained without energy.
Blame for the emergency was levelled at the Itaipu hydro-electric station that straddles the border between Brazil and Paraguay and supplies both countries with much of their energy needs.
Brazilian Energy Minister Edson Lobão said the problem originated there, possibly because a storm brought down five transmission lines.
Paraguay, which gets 90% of its power from the plant, was left in the dark for 15 minutes during the outage. But Brazil’s state- owned electricity company Furnas, responsible for the affected area, said yesterday it found no problem with the facility’s lines.
The blackout occurred two nights after the US TV network CBS broadcast a report in which unidentified former US national security officials claimed massive power outages in Brazil in 2005 and 2007 were caused by cyber hackers attacking control systems.
Although Brazilian media were sceptical of that assessment, CBS warned the US could see its own power supplies hit by computer sabotage.
Authorities are especially concerned about the damage that might be done to Brazil’s reputation ahead of Rio hosting the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2014 football World Cup.
The city, already struggling with rampant crime, was the worst-affected by the power cut, according to electricity grid officials.
