A broad swath of Brazil experienced intermittent power outages Tuesday amid record-setting high temperatures and low reservoir levels at the country’s hydroelectric power plants, Reuters reports.
Brazil’s national grid operator ONS said that the outages were caused by short circuits in transmission lines in the Northern part of the country, which triggered an automatic shutdown of power distribution to some areas. The automatic shutdown was intended to prevent the blackouts from becoming more widespread.
The power outages come just a day after Brazil’s Energy Minister Edison Lobão said he saw “no risk of energy shortages,” despite high demand on the grid. January was one of the hottest months on record in some parts of Brazil.
Blackouts reached 11 states, according to the AFP, including Rio de Janeiro and Paraná, both of which are hosting games at the 2014 World Cup in June.
[Reuters]