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The rainfall which comes together with the Summer are one of the characteristics of the season across Brazil. Over that period of time, it is important to be aware of some situations which result into risks, such as lightning and floods, particularly when it interferes the electric grid. Neoenergia prepared directions to reinforce the population's safety, either in using household appliances and electronic devices or taking aware attitudes.

One of the recommendations is to observe whether the rainfall comes together with lightning, because, in case it is, it deserves doubled attention. The lightning may interfere in household appliances, causing damages to the equipment and potential shock or short circuit​​. Such situations may particularly take place if the residence does not have a grounding system or is not in accordance with the safety standards. As a rule, every residence must have a system as such, because it decreases the chances for the lightning to strike the internal grid and damage the electronic devices.

“In general terms, the direction to be followed in event of lightning is to disconnect all the devices from the outlet, taking care when doing so, because it is essential that the person is wearing shoes and dried, always pulling from the plug and never from the wire", pointed out Neoenergia's Health and Safety manager, Harley Albuquerque. He also brought another warning referring to the use of cell phone: “The device may not be used when connected to the outlet under any circumstance, let alone during a storm, since the shock risks are higher", he completed.

Check other safety recommendations made by Neoenergia:

- Be cautious if any wall has humidity, specially if it has electric circuits and/or outlets. The safe action is to keep distance and not connect any electric and electronic devices at that place, in order to avoid the shock risk;

- In the first signs of flooding, turn the house's circuit breaker off. Next, disconnect all the electronic equipment and household appliances from the outlet by keeping them at a safe distance from the water;

- During the storm, avoid open-air places, such as roofs, swimming pools, beaches and soccer fields. In addition, do not seek for shelter under trees and poles. We recommend you to stay inside your house until the rainfall ceases;

- Do not perform any TV antenna maintenance or installation as long as it is raining, since performing such services at high places and with metallic objects increases the risks of being exposed to the lightning. If the antenna falls over the grid or close to it, never try to hold or recover it;

Prevention

Neoenergia gets prepared in a preventive and predictive manner with respect to the effects of the rainfall on the power distribution grid. One of the initiatives is the grid washing​, which is part of Neoenergia's concessionaire planning in order to improve the grid reliability. The salinity at the sea shore has a high content of mineral salts, power conductive elements and the accumulation of salinity in the pole and substation insulators may affect the grid integrity, by causing failures and short circuit. For that reason, the washing is made with special demineralized water before the rainfall season in every region.

In line with that, the entire Neoenergia's grid is equipped with reconnectors, reclosures and fused switch, which act in a similar manner: they protect the system in event of failures, such as short circuit, and insulate certain section by avoiding that the entire region is under outage due to the intercurrence. It is useful in event of fallen trees, for example, which may result into fallen wires. At last, the poles are equipped with lightning rods installed in a strategic manner in order to reinforce the grid safety. ​