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Task Force Finds Blackout Was Preventable
Shakrai writes "In what will probably be the last we hear of this subject CNN is carrying a story that states what we already suspected: the August blackout was preventable. One of the more interesting observations from this article is that this task force will remain active for the next year to push for their changes and improvements to be adopted. Does anyone think any change will come of this? If you lived in the Northeast US or Canada what were your memories of the August Blackout?" The full report is available at reports.energy.gov.
Why is it that we have this never ending need for more powerlines and more electricity rather than looking for alternatives with any real conviction?
Didn't they say the same thing about 9/11? The human need to blame stuff on other stuff is unstoppable isn't it.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
...if you have 20:20 hindsight.
The blackout was one of the best excuses to get away from my computer for a few days. A bunch of us gathered outdoors, barbequed, and played beerpong by car light. Sometimes I think this is exactly what we need to get us back into the "real world".
I was lucky -- I live in NYC and got off the subway 10 minutes before the blackout. If I had missed that train I probably would have ended up having to walk out from the middle of one of the east river tunnels. 350,000 people were on the NYC subway when the blackout hit. That had to -suck-....
It's very difficult to implement this when the prevaling attitude of most Americans is: "I need my electric power, but I don't want a power plant anywhere within 100 miles of my home."
First they blamed CANADA then they reneged on that - then they said Ohio, and now the whole thing was 'preventable.'
No shit it was preventable, we've got a 50 year old electric grid in desperate need of repair. Maybe some of the $87 Billion that going to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure could rebuild our electrical grid. The sad reality is that by the end of 2004, Iraq will have a more modern Power Grid than NYC and the whole golden horseshoe
The blackout, while annoying was made far worse by the media than it actually was. My power was out for more than 25 hours so I opted to read a book instead of bitch and complain. Perhaps others were affected in a manner worse than I, but I imagine there are others in this world that go through far worse every day.
I agree the system has problems that need to be addressed as I do not know how long hospitals/fire/police can last on battery power but this really seems like the media wanted to drag it out too long again until the next big story came along.
Seriously, as a society we consume the amount of electricity we do because we demand the standard of living that we do. When you are ready to give up your computer / TV / radio / stereo / CD player / car / iPod (yes, your iPod will have to go!), then go ahead and harp all you want about energy consumption. Untill then...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
My experience: Absolutely fantastic. People who are normally spending all day watching TV or behind a computer (yes, I'm guilty too) sat outside reading books, playing games, enjoying the sunset or taking a stroll through the forest.
And the sight of an entire town lit by nothing but moonlight is not something I'll easily forget. I'm probably sounding like a whiny bastard, but that event made me seriously doubt whether all the technology we have today have actually made life better as we like to tell ourselves.
Why wasn't Quebec affected by the blackout?
Quebec borders the blackout area and has it's electric grid integrated with the affected area, yet it was shielded from the failure. Ottawa, on the Ontario side, was in darkness while right beside it Hull, on the Quebec side, was unaffected.
So the question is what did Hydro Quebec do better than the others? Or maybe the more pointed question is why did they do better than the others? Maybe the answer is with Quebec's government run utility.
Without government regulation, and reliability standards set by the feds, it'll happen again.
Why would any corporation invest in equipment it might need, when it could just oversell what it has and pull a higher profit? Why would they run redundant transmission lines, or even retrofit the 50 year old ones if they aren't broken yet?
When a natural disaster hits, what comes back online first? Your landline phones. That's if they even go out. I can't remember the last time there was a phone outage - ie; the whole city/block without phone service.
The government, way back in the olden days, forced Ma Bell to meet a certain standard of reliability, and boo hoo if it means they spend more on infrastructure.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
With our current liberal government insisting on cutting short Ontario's hydro supply (both nuclear and coal) (and at the same time raising rates), we're going to be screwed awfully quickly.
Expect more. Much more from the next blackout.
Remember Ontario: You elected the government you deserve.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Actually, it was one of the most beautiful nights I've seen in Toronto, ON, Canada. :) I could actually see the stars, and it happened to be around the time when mars was nice and visible to the naked eye.
In fact, I wish we didn't have so many lights on at night. I don't think we need all the lights that we do have on after the sun sets. I'd say we could do with half, it'll save a lot of energy and it'd be a lot more pleasant. Of course the flip side of this is safety. Would people feel as safe walking around downtown anymore? Probably not. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
PS I live in downtown Toronto, and it's generally quite bright even at 3am.
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
because in a short while, all the kids will start poppin' out...as scheduled, 9 months after august :)
A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
I live in Toronto, Canada. The largest city in Canada, and it was completely peaceful. In fact, people with generators threw parties down town, there were a few djs spinning outside of a record shop, hooked up to a generator... Japanese food and wood oven cooked stuff was everywhere, and there was a real sense of community. Neighborhoods came alive with communal barbeques, and you could see the milky way so clearly at night. There was a real sense of beauty to everything. I brought water to the elderly women on the floor of the highrise i was in, and when the power came back, they brought me endless dishes of delicious indian food. Its one of my fondest memories of this city. So much that I've heard more than a few people wish we could have a "blackout night" once a month in the nicer summer months.. to erase our technology and embrace human culture, and nature, if only for a little while. I didn't even really think about my computer while the power was out, and I usually live on it. I know there was a lot of damage and harm from all of it, but a lot of us experienced something beautiful.
Your fears are born of ignorance; have no worry.
Environmental Issues are not self-regulated; "fortunately" (tongue-in-cheek) we have the government to police it for us. Bulk power generators are very regulated on emissions, even to the point that generators will take outages for "opacity" indicating they have reached their "pollution credit" limit and can't generate electricity anymore.
Market Monitoring, however, is self-regulating, and so far has proven to be a critical source of improvement. They are tasked with finding market power issues, and defusing them so noone has unfair advantages over any other players. For the east coast players, PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE... California ISO used to have one, until they dismantled their market, not sure what happened to it. S.E.Trans (~4 states in SouthEast) agreements fell apart. ERCOT (Texas) is pretty well along (I seem to recall a market overhaul brought on by recommendations on local pricing), and MISO was going to start a market, but after the blackout decided to delay theirs... and the rest of the country is barely ready to de-regulate.
I fear more about the regulated utilities, because they operate in a closed fashion, socializing the cost of their problems over all their customers, and preventing outside entities from building improvements in their systems...