Silveira says that the government would implement it if necessary, but, according to him, Brazil has energy security; declaration is made on the day that the country records a blackout in at least 10 states and the Federal District
The Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, defended this Tuesday (14.Oct.2025) that Brazil has energy security and ruled out the resumption of summer time this year. The statement was made in an interview with the program “Good Morning, Minister”do .
Despite the minister’s speech, this Tuesday (14.Oct) occurred, after a fire in a reactor at the Bateias substation, in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, in Paraná.
“We are completely sure that we do not needWe are opting out of daylight saving time this year.”he declared. “We would have the courage to implement it, if necessary”he added.
According to Silveira, the electricity sector monitoring committee discusses the topic monthly and analyzes data from hydroelectric plant reservoirs.
“Thanks to planning and the rainfall in recent years, we are in a condition of complete and absolute energy security for this year”, these.
Daylight saving time has not been adopted in Brazil since 2019, the 1st year of the former president’s government (PL). The measure was created in 1931, during the government of Getúlio Vargas (1882-1954). It returned permanently in 1985, under the José Sarney administration, after not being adopted for years.
In September 2024, the minister even said that, if the drought situation in the country worsened, . The measure, however, the following month.
UNDERSTAND THE BLACKOUT
Regarding the blackout, the minister said that. “It was a one-off episode, which the ONS [Operador Nacional do Sistema Elétrico] gave a prompt response thanks to the modern system of our national operator […] It’s not a lack of energy, it’s a problem in the infrastructure that transmits the energy”he stated.
The ONS preliminarily reported that the likely cause of the interruption would be a fire at the Bateias substation, located in Paraná.
In addition to the Federal District, failures were recorded in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Bahia, Amazonas, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, Goiás, Rio Grande do Norte, Maranhão, Paraíba, Sergipe and Rondônia.
The cause of the fire is investigated and the operator will prepare a Disturbance Analysis Report by Friday (Oct 17), with the technical details of the blackout and preventive measures to avoid new occurrences.
According to the ONS, the fire affected the country’s 4 subsystems – South, Southeast/Central-West, Northeast and North, according to the ONS. The fire started at around 0:32 am, leading to the complete shutdown of the 500 kV (kilovolts) substation and the interruption of interconnection between the South and the Southeast/Central-West. At the time of the failure, the South region was exporting around 5,000 MW (megawatt) to the Southeast and Central-West, which increased the impacts on energy supply.
According to the ONS, load losses were distributed as follows:
- 600 MW in the South;
- 800 MW in the Southeast;
- 900 MW in the Northeast;
- and 600 MW in the North.
Read the full ONS note:
“At 00:32 there was a major disturbance in the National Interconnected System, with the disconnection of around 10,000 MW of loads, in a controlled manner (due to the action of the Regional Load Relief Scheme – ERAC).
“The incident began with a fire in a reactor at the Bateias Substation (Paraná) which shut down the entire 500 kV substation, disconnecting the South and Southeast/Center – West regions, causing a severe contingency.
“The return of the equipment and the recomposition of loads took place in a controlled manner, in the first few minutes, and by 1:30 am all loads from the North, Northeast, Southeast and Center – West were restored. The loads from the South Region were completely restored at around 2:30 am.
“The total recovery time was shorter than incidents of this size that have already occurred in the SIN.
“A preliminary meeting is scheduled for today with the main agents involved to identify the causes and the ONS should hold a preliminary Disturbance Analysis meeting to begin preparing the Disturbance Analysis Report – RAP by Friday, 10/17.”
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