Blackout: there is no way to blame energy sources, says ONS – 08/29/2023 – Market

The general director of the ONS (National Electric System Operator), Luiz Carlos Ciocchi, said that there is no way to attribute blame for the blackout that occurred this month to power generation sources or to agents in the electricity sector.

In a meeting at the Chamber of Deputies this Tuesday (29), Ciocchi also stated that there was no “information failure” provided by agents about the technical performance of equipment that would have contributed to the blackout.

According to him, what happened was that, when they started operating, the equipment did not perform as required.

In a report released on Friday night (25), the agency had already pointed out that, in addition to the failure of a Chesf transmission line in Ceará, the voltage regulators of generation facilities close to the line did not work as expected.

These events, together, led to the loss of more than 22 GW (gigawatts) of load on August 15, affecting the supply of electricity in practically the entire country.

This Monday (28), a report from the ONS stated that the findings of the blackout on August 15 point to the fact that the generators did not send correct information about the performance of their equipment to the operator.

This inaccuracy would have compromised the planning and operation of the system, something that is done daily based on this data sent by companies.

The ONS did not specify which companies and sources —hydroelectric, thermal, wind or solar— would have provided data that did not match and reaffirmed that, due to the complexity of the event, it continues to deepen the analysis.

Since the blackout, however, the operation has already changed, using more hydroelectric plants to provide more stability to the system. Data is the essence of a well-functioning electricity sector. Day-to-day planning and operation take into account the information sent by all generation, transmission and distribution agents, explain specialists in the field.

“The ONS and the EPE [Empresa de Pesquisa Energética] need correct information on electrical and energy parameters from all sources, especially renewable ones, in order to be able to operate and plan the system, guaranteeing reliability at a minimum cost”, says Luiz Augusto Barroso, president of consultancy PSR, specialized in energy, and former – President of the EPE.

Blackout hit 25 states and the DF

The blackout that occurred on August 15 affected the supply of light in states in all regions of the country, including the Federal District. The blackout interrupted the supply of 18,900 MW of load, according to the ONS. The system was restored about six hours after the failure, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Abradee (Brazilian Association of Electric Energy Distributors) confirmed that 25 states and the Federal District were affected, based on notifications from affiliates. The exception was Roraima, which is not in the SIN (National Integration System). The situation reached between 27 million and 29 million consumer units.