7 thoughts on “Blackouts in Brazil: Two Views”

  1. Hi Michael,

    The articles have two different explanations under traditional power system planning. “Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday that the country would not have the risk of an energy blackout like the one that led to rationing for citizens in 2001” is a statement about long run power system adequacy.

    “Brazilian authorities blamed storms that took down power lines and towers, causing a domino effect that rippled across the region, an AP report said” is about short run power system security, which could be nothing more than a power system Black Swan event.

  2. As Dr. Vanderhorst-Silverio said, it’s two different problems.

    1- Explosive demand growth causes growing pain. Same thing happened in the 60s, early 70s, in western countries.
    2- Failure to invest in special protections on the main power dam (all their money is tied up in generation, I assume). ABB will make good business in Brazil in the coming years I guess.

  3. José is correct, and I was a little off counterposing articles from almost 2 years apart, since what the President said in January 2008 may have been true then but not now. Mostly I was having a little fun contrasting the politician’s absolute claim of no risk of a blackout with the fact of a blackout.

  4. Thank you for saying I was correct.

    Nonetheless, while I said it was Black Swan (BS) event, ClaudeB has a point. While the probability of a BS event will always be greater than zero, ABB claims that they have new technology available not just for line protection, but for a whole interconnected system coordination approach.

Comments are closed.