S?o Paulo faces the collapse of its electrical grid following years of under-investment, officials have warned, as widespread blackouts disrupt activity in the largest city in the Americas.
A key financial and economic hub whose metropolitan area is home to almost 23mn people, S?o Paulo has in recent months suffered multiple large-scale outages that have left hundreds of thousands of people without power for consecutive days.
City officials and the federal government have pinned the blame on Enel, the Italian energy group that has operated the grid for six years, but the blackouts highlight the damaging impact of chronic underinvestment in Brazilian infrastructure.