Into the dark days ago a massive blackout that plunged half of Brazil remains a mystery, casting a shadow over the country's energy policy and its plans to host the 2016 Olympics, experts say.
Tuesday night the outstage, which affected up to 70 million people, has proved an embarrassment for the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
After initially claiming transmission lines were at fault, then deciding that a storm must have caused a short circuit in supplies from Brazil's largest power plant, officials have been forced to backtrack from efforts to declare the incident closed.
The satellite monitoring agency, the National Space Research Institute, said it was impossible that lightning could have shorted power lines.
An electricity company said no damage the lines had been found, contradicting the energy ministry's official explanation.
As a result, the ministry, the National Electrical Energy Agency and the National Grid Operator were all given to late Sunday to provide detailed explanations of what went wrong under an order from the attorney general's office.
The office, part of the public federal ministry, said it wanted an analytical report within two weeks on the outage that identifies which officials were responsible.
Brazil's media, which covered the traffic chaos and widespread sense of insecurity engendered by the blackout, have also kept the pressure up, as have Lula's political opponents who see an chance ahead of presidential elections in a year's time.
An assertion by Lula that grid failures are an unavoidable fact of life, saying "only God can save us from further blackouts," earned criticism.
Marina Silva, a former environment minister who is positioning herself as a rival candidate to Lula's chosen successor, chief minister Dilma Rousseff, accused the government of "trying to avoid its responsibilities" by blaming bad weather.
Carlos Manuel Portela, an electrical engineering professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the storm explanation by the government was very unlikely.
"With the (global economic crisis), consumption is stable and it doesn't seem to me that climatic variations could have caused interference to this point," he said.
The doubts left in the wake of the outage have left Lula and his government on the defensive as they try to show the world that Brazil is ideally placed to host South America's first Olympic Games in seven years' time.
Questions over the reliability of the electrical grid are now being asked alongside others over the ability of authorities to stamp down on ever-present street violence in the host city of Rio.
Marcio Prado, an energy analyst at Santander bank, told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper that Brazil's electricity generation would likely start hitting its limits in 2013, when demand would outstrip supply unless projected new power plants come on line.
"There is uncertainty over whether all those thermal plants will be functioning on their forecast dates, and even if they do, their costs will be expensive," he said.
Prado said 19 power plants projects were already running behind schedule.
Tuesday night the outstage, which affected up to 70 million people, has proved an embarrassment for the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
After initially claiming transmission lines were at fault, then deciding that a storm must have caused a short circuit in supplies from Brazil's largest power plant, officials have been forced to backtrack from efforts to declare the incident closed.
The satellite monitoring agency, the National Space Research Institute, said it was impossible that lightning could have shorted power lines.
An electricity company said no damage the lines had been found, contradicting the energy ministry's official explanation.
As a result, the ministry, the National Electrical Energy Agency and the National Grid Operator were all given to late Sunday to provide detailed explanations of what went wrong under an order from the attorney general's office.
The office, part of the public federal ministry, said it wanted an analytical report within two weeks on the outage that identifies which officials were responsible.
Brazil's media, which covered the traffic chaos and widespread sense of insecurity engendered by the blackout, have also kept the pressure up, as have Lula's political opponents who see an chance ahead of presidential elections in a year's time.
An assertion by Lula that grid failures are an unavoidable fact of life, saying "only God can save us from further blackouts," earned criticism.
Marina Silva, a former environment minister who is positioning herself as a rival candidate to Lula's chosen successor, chief minister Dilma Rousseff, accused the government of "trying to avoid its responsibilities" by blaming bad weather.
Carlos Manuel Portela, an electrical engineering professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the storm explanation by the government was very unlikely.
"With the (global economic crisis), consumption is stable and it doesn't seem to me that climatic variations could have caused interference to this point," he said.
The doubts left in the wake of the outage have left Lula and his government on the defensive as they try to show the world that Brazil is ideally placed to host South America's first Olympic Games in seven years' time.
Questions over the reliability of the electrical grid are now being asked alongside others over the ability of authorities to stamp down on ever-present street violence in the host city of Rio.
Marcio Prado, an energy analyst at Santander bank, told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper that Brazil's electricity generation would likely start hitting its limits in 2013, when demand would outstrip supply unless projected new power plants come on line.
"There is uncertainty over whether all those thermal plants will be functioning on their forecast dates, and even if they do, their costs will be expensive," he said.
Prado said 19 power plants projects were already running behind schedule.
