Ministry of Mines asks Abin and Federal Police to investigate blackout

The Ministry of Mines and Energy will ask the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) and the Ministry of Justice, through the Federal Police, to investigate the causes that led to the blackout on Tuesday (15).

Minister Alexandre Silveira’s justification is that the sector is extremely strategic and sensitive. He also did not rule out the possibility of malice in the event that affected almost all units of the federation, taking, for example, attacks on transmission lines carried out at the beginning of the year.

According to Silveira, the Brazilian energy system is extremely robust and operates in redundancy. “It would take at least two concurrent events for there to be such a problem,” he said.

One of them supposedly occurred on a transmission line in Ceará. However, he did not give further details about what the problem would have been and where it would have occurred.

The failure in the transmission line in Ceará is yet another hypothesis to be raised as the cause of the blackout. Throughout the day, other theses emerged: one of them would be, according to the Vice President of the Republic, Geraldo Alckmin, a problem in a power substation in Imperatriz (MA).

Another found by “The globe” along with ONS sources is that there would have been a failure in a substation in Anapu (PA), 20 kilometers from the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant. A third possibility, raised by sources cited by “Value” is that five turbines from the Santo Antônio plant (RO) have left the system simultaneously.

The problem happened in the midst of a scenario of full reservoirs, an economy slowing down and far from consumption peaks.

Robustness of the electrical system is questioned

The robustness of the system is questioned by experts. “There may be local weaknesses”, says independent consultant Rafael Herzberg. He cites the blackout episode in Amapá, in November 2020, which left almost 800,000 people without power for 22 days.

Data from the National System Operator (ONS) show that the robustness of the basic energy network in Brazil – that is, the ability to withstand contingencies without interruption in supply fell this year to the lowest level since 2016. Of the 1,625 disturbances in the National Interconnected System ( SIN), 123 (7.5%) resulted in supply interruption.

Criticism of the privatization of Eletrobras

Silveira also took the opportunity to criticize the privatization of Eletrobras, which took place in 2022. “It is a strategic company that must have synergy with the public authorities.”

The minister said that with the transfer of the state company to the private sector, the operational arm of the government in the electricity sector was lost. And privatization would have generated instability in the electricity sector, with Brazilians losing out in the process. “It took away the possibility of a harmonic system in the electrical field”.