SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 14 (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 interruption of around

1,900 MW, the North region 1,600MW, and the Southeast region

4,800 MW.

Brazil Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira called

the blackout an isolated event that did not happen due to a lack

of energy, but rather an infrastructure issue.

"We have greater energy security. This was a one-off episode

that ONS responded to promptly," Silveira said during an

interview on local television.

ONS noted the restoration of equipment and load recovery was

carried out "safely within the first few minutes", adding all

loads were restored within 2-1/2 hours.

Eletrobras said in a statement it will work with ONS to

identify the causes of the event, and that the agency will

investigate what led to the broader disturbance in the national

interconnected system.

Electricity distributors around the country, as Light

and Enel Sao Paulo, reported at least 1.3 million

people were affected by the blackout.