IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2016 - 46

table 5. The load lost and restoration times
for the 4 February 2011 event.
State/Region

Interrupted
Load (MW)

Average Restoration
Time (min)

Ceará

1,124

122

Rio Grande do
Norte

601

245

Paraíba

548

206

Pernambuco

1,588

233

Alagoas

477

187

Sergipe

426

133

Bahia

1,821

193

Industrial
customers in the
northeast

778

211

Total northeast

7,363

194

Brazil

7,363

194

The main take away points from the 2009 and 2011 large-scale
events were as follows:
✔ Increase the number of black-start areas and cranking paths.
✔ Analyze the feasibility of implementing new islanding
protection schemes.
✔ Review and modify many restoration areas to avoid
overvoltages, excessive load pick up, and load rejection during the restoration process.
✔ In Brazil, thermal and nuclear power plants are usually
considered last in the restoration procedure. However, if
possible, they should be equipped with islanding schemes
(house load operation) to supply part of the system after
a disturbance.
✔ There is the need to implement periodic inspection
schedules for black-start devices at designated power plants. All black-start generation units owners are
mandated to test the black-start capabilities within
their restoration path under realistic conditions and to
record the outcomes.
✔ Review the grid code to create awareness of operating risks, in particular during maintenance services in
the transmission system. This action should allow the
system operators to make use of previous measures to
ensure secure operating conditions
✔ Assess, together with the generator owners, the generation ramp-up and load restoration process. The new
procedure should include, whenever possible, the operation of the generator units in nondesirable operating points for a limited period of time to guarantee
the adequate coordination between the ramping up of
generation in the power plants and restoring service to
system load.
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✔ Improved communications (voice and data) between

the system operators and the TSPs is needed during disturbances.
While important lessons were learned from these past blackouts, actions were also being undertaken to prepare for two
very important international events that would require a very
high level of reliability.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup
The 2014 FIFA World Cup took place between 12 June and
13 July. As a major international event, the World Cup represented a significant challenge for the Brazilian ISO. The
international community would have its eyes focused on the
host cities, in particular after extensive public debate during the planning and preparation process. The pressure on
the system operators, as well as transmission/distribution
system providers, was just as intense. The country's power
system engineers knew that special studies and revised operating procedures should be created to ensure that the lights
would be on before, during, and after the games. After all, it
was a multicity event involving the sport that is the national
pastime and with the participation of 32 international teams
including Brazil's all-star team. Thousands of tourists and
members of the international press were visiting the country
during the month-long event. The 12 host cities that were
flooded with domestic and international visitors are located
in all of the Brazilian electric regions: south, southeast, midwest, north, and northeast, namely, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília,
São Paulo, Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Salvador, Recife, Cuiabá, Manaus, Natal, and Curitiba.
Brazilians are rightly known as a festive people, to such
an extent that the country's ISO has special operating procedures for the major country celebration times, including
Carnival, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. Nobody wants to
party in the dark. For the 2014 FIFA World Cup, preparation
started almost four years before the event. The Ministry of
Mines and Energy created a working group (WG) to establish an action plan and ensure follow-up, focusing on the
energy supply to the 12 host cities.
The first World Cup WG meeting, which took place in
October 2010, proposed and approved the WG activities
schedule. The energy supply and plan of action to the host
cities was developed by eight task forces, which were coordinated by the Brazilian planning authority (EPE) and the ISO.
In June 2011, the World Cup WG issued the first status
report documenting the task force's work to date and the plan
of action. One of the most important aspects of this report
was the construction schedule for the system reinforcements,
which attracted detailed comments from stakeholders.
In June of 2013, Brazil hosted an international soccer tournament: the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. This tournament was a much smaller event than the World Cup to be held
the following year, but it was an excellent opportunity for a
rehearsal of sorts. In the beginning of 2013, the Brazilian ISO
issued a specific study report detailing an action plan for the
november/december 2016

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