Posted on 09/03/2003 4:10:50 PM PDT by Pro-Bush
Calls Show Pre-Blackout Utility Confusion
WASHINGTON - During the hour before the Aug. 14 blackout, engineers in the control center of an Ohio utility struggled to figure out why transmission lines were failing and complained that a computer failure was making it difficult to determine what was going on, transcripts of telephone communications released Wednesday show.
At one point, an engineer at the Midwest grid managing organization asked engineers at the Ohio utility, FirstEnergy Corp., to explain why they had not responded to a line outage reported sometime earlier and asked that they find out what was going on.
"We have no clue. Our computer is giving us fits, too," replied a FirstEnergy technician identified as Jerry Snickey. "We don't even know the status of some of the stuff (power fluctuations) around us."
A short time later, a technician at the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operators, the group that monitors the Midwest power grid, expressed frustration with FirstEnergy's failure to diagnose the problems erupting in their power system.
"I called you guys like 10 minutes ago, and I thought you were figuring out what was gong on there," the MISO technician, identified as Don Hunter, complained, according to the transcripts.
"Well, we're trying to," replied Snickey. "Our computer is not happy. It's not cooperating either."
That had to seriously distract the FE management.
What's interesting about that case is that a similar suit in a different federal jurisdiction brought about the opposite ruling. The rule is basically a unilateral change brought about by Clinton's EPA anyways. They essentially took a vague rule and "reinterpreted" it so that actions that were taken by utilities in the past (and approved by the EPA) were deemed illegal, ex-post facto.
Anyway, while the ruling did probably distract upper management, the system dispatchers probably weren't too affected by it. The long term effects of the ruling will probably make the grid even less reliable however, as more of those older plants get retired rather than upgraded to meet the new standards. The older plants tend to be closer to the actual consumers, while the cheap to build (and expensive to operate) gas turbines that will replace them will be located in some remote area where a major gas line crosses an existing power line. Look for more strain on the grid as a result.
The hearings before Billy Tauzin's Energy and Commerce committee were being webcast this morning. The link is on [this page].
I would have liked to have heard that as well, though I am a little nervious whenever a bunch of politicians get together and try to legislate new laws - especially laws of physics. :)
Hydrogen temp by itself can't tell you what part of the generator is heating up. Certainly it can tell you that a problem exists with the entire system. I might mention that Everything I described above is GE build practives. Other manufacturers may do it differently.
But that was twenty years ago...sigh.
I don't remember if Unit 5 at Eastlake was a GE or Westinghouse unit. Still, I suspect that operations ought to be similar. Incidentally, Unit 5 is the first major generator I ever saw, and the Eastlake plant is the first power plant I ever visited in my travels as a relay tech. Its a pretty impressive machine, as are all large generators.
Given the kinds of NIMBY going on, I think you're probably right. Linn Draper (AEP's boss) was sounding off about the one categorization of the US grid as "third world". He noted that it isn't that, but it is being pushed close to its limits. This is due in large part to the morass of regulations, federal, state, and local, that must be navigated for any kind of project, be it a plant or transmission line. Mr. Draper cited the case of an AEP HV transmission line that was first planned and proposed 13 years ago, and just this year had its final sign-off by the regulators. Now they've got to finance and build the thing. When its finally carrying megawatts, it will be going on 20 years, just to get a single transmission line up.
Not the kind of system, in its present incarnation, that lends itself to quick fixes.
Some of these things literally stagger the imagination to think of the kind of power coming out at the busbar. I remember being boggled when I saw the turbine and generator tear-down for maintenance at the Point Beach plant. They had the end of the generator opened where that isophase bus comes out. Talk about a BIG wire, it was a conductor about as big around as a factory chimney. Impressive, to say the least.
Not the kind of system, in its present incarnation, that lends itself to quick fixes.
Absolutely - There was a transmission line that was to be built from the Perry Nuclear Plant down to Hanna substation just east of Akron, but the NIMBY's eventually shut the project down, claiming that the line wasn't needed. Ironically, that line would have stood a very good chance of prevented the blackout, had it been built. The loss of the first transmission line into Cleveland would likely have been absorbed by the system with one more major parallel path into the area.
NIMBYism doomed California, and it is a big factor in this blackout as well, even if it isn't found to be the trigger. Our infrastructure simply hasn't kept up with the population.
And the sad (and maddening) thing about it is, none of the NIMBYs or wackos who opposed this project will be held accountable for their complicity in being responsible, in part, for this blackout occurring. The press certainly won't. Its unpalatable to the mainstream media to point out the downside of environmental extremisim because, after all, "their intentions are good".
BTW, a similar thing is happening with the Columbia investigation. Everyone knows that foam breaking off the external tank damaging the wing is what did it, but I have yet to see any mention anywhere (other than FR) of the fact that NASA switched to a non-freon foam for environmental reasons, and this substitute foam apparently has inferior adhesive properties. So environmental extremism may very well be the root cause. But the mainstream press won't touch it with a ten-foot pole. And who will end up paying the price, besides those who died? Managers within NASA, of course, many of whom had nothing to do with the decision to go with the alternate material.
But I digress. Still, the lack of accountability of environmentalist wackos in these kinds of things and the unwillingness of the press to hold their feet to the fire is just outrageous.
Translation: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
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