“Power blackouts rolled through São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and at least eight other Brazilian states on Monday, stoking fears that the nation’s severe drought has entered a damaging new phase.
A spike in energy use, coupled with transmission troubles, forced Brazil’s national grid operator, ONS, to order utilities to cut electricity to parts of the heavily populated Southeast. The region is suffering through sweltering summer temperatures and low reservoir levels at hydroelectric dams. Power was also cut in the nation’s capital of Brasília.”