Instability Disconnected Energy System Supplying Brazil’s Amapá State

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The instability in Amapá’s power system caused the energy supply to be cut off, interrupting the supply to 13 of the 16 Amapá cities three times on Tuesday night, November 17th. The news of a new blackout that affected the capital, Macapá, on Tuesday night was reported by the Ministry of Mines and Energy yesterday morning, November 18th.

According to the portfolio, the service was interrupted at 8:27 PM, after the sudden automatic shutdown of the Macapá substation transformer and the Coaracy Nunes Hydroelectric Plant, located in the city of Ferreira Gomes (AP). The substation is operated by the private company Macapá Power Transmission Lines (LMTE), belonging to the Gemini Energy group. The plant is operated by North Power Plants (Eletronorte), a subsidiary of the state-owned Eletrobras.

Two other shutdowns occurred at 9:03 PM and 9:20 PM, while technicians were trying to solve the problem. According to the Ministry, given the system’s instability, it took almost an hour for service to begin to be gradually restored until it reached the same level of operation as before the new incident, that is, at 80 percent of full capacity.

According to the Amapá Electricity Company (CEA), which is responsible for distributing electricity to the whole state and is controlled by the state government, the new problem was only circumvented at around 1 AM yesterday, but due to the rotation system implemented as a result of the shutdown that since last November 3rd affects Amapá, power in some neighborhoods was only restored after 4 AM.

The causes of Tuesday’s problem are still being investigated. In a note released last night, the LMTE reported that the new blackout did not originate in the transmission line and that there was no problem in the transformer installed in the Macapá substation. Eletronorte reported that the shutdown of the Coaracy Nunes Plant occurred “as a result of an external event, probably in the electricity distribution system”.

The CEA did not comment on Eletronorte’s claim that the problem originated in distribution. In a note, the company stressed that the causes of Tuesday’s blackout are currently being ascertained.

Since November 3rd, the population of Amapá has been facing the consequences of the power shortage. The problem was caused by a fire in a substation transformer in the capital, Macapá, which led to the automatic shutdown of the Laranjal/Macapá transmission lines and the Coaracy Nunes and Ferreira Gomes hydroelectric plants, which supply the region.

The transformer that caught fire belongs to LMTE, part of the Gemini Energy group, which took over the operations of former Isolux, a Spanish company that had won the concession for this and several other public works and services in the country, but is now in the process of financial restructuring.

The burnt-down transformer was destroyed. As two other equipment parts were also damaged, there was no possibility of reusing them to reconnect the substation. Since then, the Ministry of Mines and Energy has set up a task force to address the crisis; the state-owned Eletronorte took over the emergency power supply and even the Armed Forces were mobilized to carry equipment and supplies to the state to assist the population.

On Wednesday, November 11th, the Amapá Civil Police released the result of a preliminary report that notes that, contrary to what the LMTE initially reported, the fire at the Macapá substation transformer was not caused by lightning, but rather by overheating of a part of the equipment. On that same day, Civil Police officers served warrants to search the company’s premises, where they seized documents and conducted new investigations.

On Friday, November 13th, the 2nd Civil Federal Court of Amapá extended the deadline for the LMTE to fully restore the energy supply to the whole state, under the penalty of a R$50 million (US$10 million) fine.

In a note disclosed on Monday, November 15th, the company announced that a new transformer should reach Macapá in the coming days, and as soon as it is installed and begins operating, it will allow the service to be normalized within a few days.

Source: Agência Brasil