ONS points to failure in wind and solar plants in Ceará as the cause of the blackout

The National Electric System Operator (ONS) pointed out that the main cause for the blackout that occurred in Brazil on August 15th was a failure in the performance of equipment at wind and solar farms, located close to the Quixadá – Fortaleza II transmission line, in Ceará. At the time, around 29 million Brazilians across almost the entire country were left without power.

According to a report, released this Tuesday (26) by the agency, the equipment responsible for voltage control worked less than ideal. “The disturbance analysis made it possible to verify that the performance of field controls, of wind and solar plants, especially with regard to the dynamic support capacity of reactive power, was far below the mathematical models provided by the agents and represented in the database electromechanical transient official”, says the ONS report, informed the Brazil Agency.

The operator reported that the difference between the performance of the equipment and the simulations “did not allow the ONS to identify the risks related to the pre-disturbance operating scenario”, which caused the power outage. With the publication of the document, called the Disturbance Analysis Report (RAP), agents of the electrical system will be able to speak out. The report will be finalized by October 17th.

The blackout affected 25 states and the Federal District. The interruption began at 8:30 am on August 15, with a drop in supply of 19 thousand megawatts, around 27% of the total load (73 thousand MW) at that time. In the South, Southeast and Central-West regions, service was restored almost completely in less than an hour. In the Northeast Region, it took three hours to restore only 70% of the affected load. The impact was even greater in the North Region, with load recovery taking around seven hours.