The former director general of ONS (National Electric System Operator) Luiz Carlos Ciocchi placed a new element for discussion on the blackout occurred this morning: if and why the N-2 security criterion, standard in the national interconnected system, did not work properly.
N-2 is a standard that determines that the system must be capable of facing the loss of up to two elements simultaneously without load service restrictions.
In some moments of acute crisis in the sector, with water scarcity and a drop in the volume of reservoirs, the rule was relaxed and the N-1 criterion was adopted — instead of double contingency, just one.
“That region is very well merciful. [com boa rede de transmissão]. In theory, the N-2 or N-1 was supposed to be working,” Ciocchi told CNN.
According to him, when this reliability standard is operating satisfactorily, the loss of a specific point does not destabilize the system and goes practically unnoticed by consumers.
“ERAC (Regional Load Alleviation Scheme) worked well and that is very positive, but what happened to the contingency systems?”, he added.
Ciocchi, director general of the ONS between 2020 and 2024, said he expected a “quick” RAP (Disruption Analysis Report).
This document, which is customary when a blackout occurs, analyzes the reasons for the occurrence and seeks to avoid new episodes of the same nature.
Earlier, in an interview at EBC (Empresa Brasil de Comunicação), the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, highlighted that there is no lack of energy and that there was a specific infrastructure problem.
“There was no major damage to the system. The damage was punctual and we will investigate to avoid new episodes”, said Silveira on the program “Bom Dia, Minister”.
“An electrical problem occurred in a large substation in Paraná […]. The system, losing a substation of this volume of energy, programmatically cuts a percentage in each state, the closest state, in some states, where it is necessary to reschedule the load”, he stated.
