President Lula calls for calm before dishing out blame for blackout

BRAZIL President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called for patience before the exact cause of the blackout which left Rio de Janeiro, the host city of the 2016 Olympics, in darkness for more than five hours, is known.

WANTING ANSWERS: Brazil President Lula has urged caution before dishing out blame for the blackout (Getty Images)

According to Lula, Tuesday's blackout which plunged millions into darkness, was caused by a problem with energy transmission lines and had nothing to do with a lack of energy within the country.

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.

"It is important that no theories are made and that we wait until we have the facts in order to better inform society," he said.

"Two things are certain, there wasn't a lack of power generation and there wasn't a lack of transmission lines to connect the system."

The blackout, which affected 18 of the 26 Brazilian states began when the Itaipu hydroelectric dam, which supplies much of the country's electricity, suddenly went offline.

Ministry of Mines and Energy's Executive Secretary, Marcio Zimmermann, stated that adverse weather conditions were the cause of the massive blackout.

According to Zimmermann, the collapse of the three transmission lines could not be prevented. He stressed that no system in the world is prepared to deal with a situation of triple contingency.

But opposition politicians have been quick to blame the blackout on a lack of investment in Brazil's energy sector, where capacity has struggled to keep pace with demand.

In 2001 and 2002 the government introduced electricity rationing after a combination of poor management and low rainfall - Brazil gets about 85 percent of its electricity from hydroelectric power - resulted in shortages.