Leticia Fukuchima
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The power outage that hit parts of Sao Paulo and Guarulhos last Saturday was caused by a kite that struck a substation and caused a short circuit, the owner of the Eletrobras substation said on Monday.
A video released by Eletrobras shows the kite’s body crashing into the first busbar at the Guarulhos substation, triggering the plant’s protection systems.
According to the company, after 12 seconds, the tail of the metal thread, which contains aluminum, hits the second busbar and causes another short circuit, causing the substation to shut down completely.
The event caused a load shedding of approximately 870 megawatts (MW) in areas served by distributors Enel and EDP at around 17:31, the National Electricity System Operator (ONS) said on Saturday. Full restoration of power supply to customers was completed at 19:58.
“In 2023 alone, Eletrobras recorded five incidents at substations caused by kites. The launching of kites or balloons and arson in areas close to power lines pose a risk to human life and also to the operation of the electrical grid,” Eletrobras said in a press release on Monday.
Brazil experienced another power outage over the weekend. On Sunday at 11:53 a.m., the isolated system in Roraima went into automatic shutdown. The state is the only one that does not receive power from the National Interconnected System (SIN) and relies on local energy production.
The state’s load at the time of the incident was 85MW, according to the ONS, with overall service restoration completed at 13:40.
The incidents are in addition to a third power outage that occurred on August 22 in the states of Acre and Rondonia after the shutdown of transmission and generation equipment in the region resulted in a loss of 984 megawatts (MW).
The ONS is continuing to investigate the causes of incidents in the North. The diagnostics, published in so-called RAPs, take up to 40 working days to complete.
(Editing by Roberto Zamora)
The post-blackout in SP was caused by a kite that got into a substation, says Eletrobras first appeared in ISTOÉ DINHEIRO.
Source: Istoe Dinheiro
I work as an author at the World Herald News, a news website that also covers the economy. I have been writing about economic topics for over six years and have written extensively on topics such as unemployment, housing prices, and the stock market. My goal is to provide readers with expert insight into these important issues so they can make informed decisions.
