Dark buildings are seen during a blackout in Sao Paulo November 11, 2009. A major electricity outage at the Itaipu hydroelectric dam, the world's largest operational electricity generator on the border with Paraguay, left tens of millions of people in Brazil's two largest cities of Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro without power, according to the Brazilian director of the dam.
According to the President, the blackout was caused by a problem in the energy transmission lines, having nothing to do with energy generation.
He also denied that the problem was related to a lack of investments in the energy sector. According to Lula, his government invested 30 percent more in energy than the previous administrations.
President Lula also said that he will not assign blame before all facts are known. According to him, the authorities are working hard to discover the exact causes of the blackout, which lasted over four hours and affected 18 out of Brazil's 27 federation units, as well as most of the Paraguayan territory.
"It is important that no theories are made, that we wait until we have the facts in order to better inform society," he said.
Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Mines and Energy's Executive Secretary, Marcio Zimmermann, stated that adverse weather conditions were the cause of the massive blackout.
