700 million people blackout! Long article, but not very technical, contains some excellent quotes and sound like free anarchy at individual, corporate and government levels - corruption, politics, theft, fraud, overload, fatalaties.
I liked this quote: "No one is taking care of the grid — the network of transmission lines, interconnectors and transformers that is essential to life as we know it; two, supply cannot keep up with demand; and three, rate-setting is a political rather than an economic process. It should not come as a shock, so to speak, that neglect, failure to prepare and playing politics with essentials should lead to disaster ... No less than the American Society of Civil Engineers said in a report released in April that the [US] grid could break down by 2020 unless investment in it is increased immediately by about one billion dollars a year. Why so much? Because, according to the report, more than two-thirds of the system’s transmission lines and power transformers are at least 25 years old, and 60 percent of the circuit breakers have been in use for more than 30 years."
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
..."At 13:30 EDT, the MISO EMS engineer went to lunch. However, he forgot to re-engage the automatic periodic trigger."
..."Also at 15:42 EDT, the Perry plant operator called back with more evidence of problems. “I’m still getting a lot of voltage spikes and swings on the generator . . . . I don’t know how much longer
we’re going to survive.”
..."At 15:46 EDT the Perry plant operator called the FE control room a third time to say that the unit was close to tripping off: “It’s not looking good . . . .We ain’t going to be here much longer and you’re
going to have a bigger problem.”
A great read both for its tutorial and historical value.
700 million people blackout! Long article, but not very technical, contains some excellent quotes and sound like free anarchy at individual, corporate and government levels - corruption, politics, theft, fraud, overload, fatalaties.
I liked this quote: "No one is taking care of the grid — the network of transmission lines, interconnectors and transformers that is essential to life as we know it; two, supply cannot keep up with demand; and three, rate-setting is a political rather than an economic process. It should not come as a shock, so to speak, that neglect, failure to prepare and playing politics with essentials should lead to disaster ... No less than the American Society of Civil Engineers said in a report released in April that the [US] grid could break down by 2020 unless investment in it is increased immediately by about one billion dollars a year. Why so much? Because, according to the report, more than two-thirds of the system’s transmission lines and power transformers are at least 25 years old, and 60 percent of the circuit breakers have been in use for more than 30 years."