A fire at an Eletrobras substation in Paraná triggered a massive blackout earlier this week, cutting around 10 gigawatts (GW) of power and exposing deep reliability concerns in Brazil’s electricity grid.
The fire occurred at a reactor in the Bateias substation, part of a 500-kilovolt (kV) transmission line.
The outage activated an automatic safety protocol that disconnected parts of the grid to prevent greater damage, leaving several regions without electricity for up to two hours.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy described the event as a “severe contingency.” Power was restored within 90 minutes in most regions and full restoration in the South took about two and a half hours.
“ONS will determine what led to the larger disturbance in the national system. Eletrobras will collaborate in identifying the causes,” the company said.
Experts said the incident revealed structural fragilities in the grid. Luiz Carlos Ciocchi, former director-general of the National Electricity System Operator (ONS), said the blackout was “very different” from past incidents.
“The first question that needs answering is what exactly happened at the substation and why a fire in one component shut down an entire plant,” he said.
Power systems engineer Celso Torino noted that the 10GW outage was nearly equivalent to Itaipu’s 14GW capacity. “We need to better understand why a reactor fire at a 500kV substation caused the complete shutdown of 750kV lines,” he said.
Analysts warned the event underscores ongoing risks linked to outdated infrastructure, operational weaknesses and rising renewable generation variability.
Brazil has faced at least five major blackouts since 2023, highlighting a system that remains, as one expert described, “on a knife’s edge.”
This is the latest in a series of global blackouts including in Spain and Heathrow this year.
Brazil blackout exposes grid issues after substation fire appeared first on Energy Live News.