Sao Paulo, Oct 15 (AP) Brazil's federal government on Monday established a three-day deadline for power distributor Enel to restore service to more than 400,000 households in Sao Paulo's metropolitan area who remain in the dark, energy minister Alexandre Silveira said in a news conference.

The outage started Friday evening due to a short but powerful storm, and with the city's mayoral race in full swing, it sparked a blame game.

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Candidate Guilherme Boulos and allies are accusing incumbent Mayor Ricardo Nunes of failing to take preventive action, while others, including Nunes, are calling for the country's regulating agency to punish Enel. The federal government, meanwhile, is launching an audit of the power regulator's inspections of the utility.

Silveira told reporters that he is in favor of terminating Enel's contract, due in 2028, but that would depend “on due process.” He added that the company "would not be so neglectful" if it faced the risk that its concession would be terminated.

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“No matter what the cause is, what we need is a solution," said Silveira. “Later on, we can discuss planning to improve the quality of the utilities.”

The outage initially affected around 2.1 million households in Sao Paulo's metropolitan area and at least seven people were killed statewide. It prompted some protesters to take to the streets and denounce insufficient action by local authorities as well as alleged neglect by the company. Enel took over the concession from the state government in 2018.

Officials in Sao Paulo state said that wind gusts Friday night of up to 67 mph (108 kph) knocked down transmission lines and uprooted trees. The storm also shut down several airports and interrupted water service in several areas. For its part, Enel said that 17 high voltage transmission lines were affected.

Enel has had similar problems in Sao Paulo in previous years. Almost one year ago, Brazil's most populous state had several cities without power after heavy rains, some for as long as six days.

CEO Guilherme Alencastre on Sunday declined to provide a timeline for all households to have electricity again. He claimed the company was bringing in extra workers to help restore service.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Monday ordered the country's comptroller's office to investigate whether the country's power regulator had carried out its job of inspecting Enel properly. Many appointees at the agency got their positions in the presidency of Lula's predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro has given a lukewarm endorsement of Sao Paulo's Mayor Nunes, a conservative with a comfortable lead in the polls. His rival, Boulos, is a former homeless workers' movement leader endorsed by Lula. Boulos has seized upon the power outage as ammunition against Nunes, who in turn has accused Boulos of opportunism.

Silveira told reporters that more than 50% of the incidents leading to local power outages “were caused by trees falling on medium and low (voltage) systems.” City Hall is responsible for trimming trees. (AP)

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