SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -A fire at an energy substation owned by Brazilian firm Eletrobras led to a power outage across several parts of Brazil in the early hours Tuesday, officials said, with a total shutdown of around 10,000 megawatts (MW) of load and more than 1 million consumers affected.

The incident occurred in a reactor at a substation in southern Brazil, shutting down the facility and causing the disconnection of the region, which was exporting around 5,000MW across Brazil, the country’s energy operator ONS said.

In the South, the fire resulted in a loss of approximately 1,600 MW of load. In other regions, an automatic protection mechanism was activated, meant to cut power when the system needs to be rebalanced due to a disturbance.

The Northeast region experienced an

See Full Page