Posted on 08/15/2003 10:31:25 AM PDT by Squawk 8888
(AP) - The largest power blackout in North American history prompted new calls Friday for overhauling the U.S. electricity system. Investigators said the power disruptions likely began in the Midwest but they have yet to pinpoint the cause.
They are now focusing on a massive electrical grid that encircles Lake Erie, moving power from New York to the Detroit area, into Canada and back to New York state. There had been problems with the transmission loop in the past, officials said.
The head of the North American Reliability Council, who earlier said northern Ohio may have been the flashpoint, later backed way from reaching any conclusion "until we're absolutely certain."
"We had some indication that the first transmission lines that were tripped were in the Midwest . . . We're not certain that is where it started," said Michehl Gent, president of NERC, an industry sponsored group that tracks power grids to assure their reliability.
At a news conference, Gent provided a picture of the enormity of the blackout that began Thursday at 4:11 p.m. and raced from New England to Michigan and southeastern Canada.
He said more than 100 power plants - including 22 nuclear reactors in the United States and Canada - were shut down, and the blackout affected 50 million people over a 24,000-square-kilometre area from New England to Michigan.
He said a preliminary determination of the cause of the cascading power disruption, which raced through the system in less than 10 seconds, may not be available until next week and more detailed investigations could last months.
"We never anticipated we would have a cascading outage" like this, said Gent, adding that he was "personally embarrassed" because his organization is supposed "to see that this doesn't happen."
While NERC closely watches grid reliability, it has no power to force transmission companies to comply with standards or correct violations.
Some in Congress have urged creation of an agency that would have industry police power. The issue is likely to be debated next month when legislators consider energy laws.
Gent said the investigation could find that someone violated industry standards or that the standards are not adequate. He ruled out completely reports of a lightning strike or a fire in a New York City facility and said weather appeared to have not been a factor in the blackout.
He said electricity capacity was adequate when the blackout hit.
The investigation is focusing on "the Lake Erie Loop," a massive transmission system that goes through New York state south of the Great Lakes to Detroit and then up through Canada, down by Niagara Falls, back to New York, said Gent.
"That's the centre of the focus. This has been a problem for years and there have been all sorts of plans to make it more reliable," he said.
At one point, 300 megawatts of power were travelling east on the loop and suddenly reversed direction, resulting in an estimated 500 megawatts suddenly moving west, he said. It was uncertain what caused the sudden shift.
The focus on Ohio earlier had been criticized by Ohio officials.
The chairman of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission, Alan Schriber, called it "speculation at best" and said industry experts he contacted Friday continued to focus attention on Canada and upstate New York.
And a private company that monitors the grid said its technology showed the problem started in Michigan. "That was the epicentre," insisted David Trungale, vice-president of SoftSwitching Technologies Inc., of Middleton, Wis.
One reason it may be so difficult to pinpoint the cause is the speed in which the cascading outages raced across the Northeast and Ohio Valley as well as southeastern Canada.
President George W. Bush promised a review of "why the cascade was so significant, why it was able to ripple so significantly throughout our system."
William Museler, president of the New York Independent System Operator, which manages the state's electric grid, said "huge" power fluctuations originating from a Midwest power plant started the downfall of the grid at 4:11 p.m. Thursday. He said the power swings became so large that the Ontario system could not sustain them, and the problem migrated to New York.
As the power fluctuated, generators in New York tripped off to protect themselves, an act of self-preservation that made it possible to restore power Friday morning, Museler said.
The Energy Department, meanwhile, ordered the activation of a special power cable linking Connecticut and Long Island to ease the movement of electricity in the New York City area as power was being restored.
Electricity was back on in virtually all of upstate New York on Friday, while the New York City metropolitan area was beginning to get its power restored after a massive blackout, Gov. George Pataki said.
"The power has been restored to the vast majority of the state geographically," Pataki said at a command centre in Albany, N.Y.
"From everything we saw last night and continue to see this morning, the restoration plan for the state is working very well," Museler said.
Still, Pataki has said the systematic failure should never have happened and said operators of the sprawling grid owe the public answers. He said the cascading problem should have been isolated by safeguards in the system. "That just did not happen," he said.
Gent said he was fairly confident terrorism wasn't involved. Federal officials earlier said there is no evidence of terrorism.
"We don't have any indication of blown-up equipment," he said on ABC's Good Morning America. "So, we're almost certain it's not terrorism of any kind."
The reversal could have been caused by a number of things. To include line failure, insulators and some human act or accident.
It will be interesting to see if the information is kept secret or not.
It's a big story because of the security issues.
Obviously, this is the Bush Administration's fault, and would never have happened during the Clinton Administration.
and
Gent said he was fairly confident terrorism wasn't involved. Federal officials earlier said there is no evidence of terrorism.
"We don't have any indication of blown-up equipment," he said on ABC's Good Morning America. "So, we're almost certain it's not terrorism of any kind."
So, we don't know what started it, or where, so, since we don't know, it can't have been terrorism.
I wish I could find one, too. Robert is very knowledgeable on this stuff, but is too busy right now to educate the rest of us.
We have a few power plant people here on FR.
According to CNBC, Hillary has already said as much.
Downtown Toronto has again been hit by a power outage, this one beginning around 1:37pm EDT.
This is the second power outage to hit the downtown Toronto area since power was restored around midnight EDT Thursday. The first outage Friday morning occurred at about 8:49am EDT but lasted for just a few minutes.
There has been no immediate indication of how long the current outage will last.
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