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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.
Slashdot had a great story on the blackout last year:
Guinnessy writes "The latest issues of the Industrial Physicist suggests that 'the vast system of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution that covers the United States and Canada is essentially a single machine -- by many measures, the world's biggest machine.' The article says that because deregulation ignored the physics of the machine, we have blackouts, a fact the industry warned regulators about in 1998. It has some nice hard science data for those interested in why we're going to get some more blackouts in the future unless Congress gets its act together." I work with power utilities -- this is the best single explanation I've seen of the underlying problems of transmission management and regulation in the U.S.
Al Bonnyman
Community Broadband Networks
The Economist recently had a great article on this particular subject.
It was mainly in favor of decentralization and mimicking the internet in terms of distributing power to remote locations. Smaller more 'frequent' stations placed around the country would allow power to be routed 'around' a dead area should the surrounding stations lose contact with it-- I suppose that explaining that here was sort of moot:)
Anyway, I think that they've adopted this method in Denmark and it's been working excellently despite the initial skepticism of critics.
And how much did we pay to learn the very profound, "it could have been prevented"?
This may give you a hint...
I just wonder if the industries in general are self-regulating themselves as well as this when it comes to environmental issues and maintaining fair competition in the markets.
I fear not.
The owls are not what they seem
It was preventable. In my town (near Niagara Falls, Canada) the power didn't go off since a tech at the power company saw it comming and threw the switch to pull the entire area off the power grid. didn't even have to reset the clocks
If you lived in the Northeast US or Canada what were your memories of the August Blackout?
I was at Pennsic, a medieval camping event near Pittsburg. We were right near the boarder of the affected area; I don't know if we were hit or not--when you're trying to live in the 13th century, you don't notice when the power goes out.
I was at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, NY, when I walked up to a vendor who sells Buffalo-style chicken fingers. "Sorry," he told me, "we just had to shut down, there's no power." I couldn't believe it. I just thought maybe a circuit had blown somewhere and a few of the food vendors had no electricity. Then I heard some guy nearby get off his cell phone and say to his wife, "Yeah, he said power's out all over the place, from New York City up into Canada." We were desperate for more news. My companions and I bopped around the fair trying to find out what happened, and finally we just gave up and decided to head home, since the fair was closing at sundown since there were not going to be lit up after dark. One of my companions wanted to know if the power was still on at home, and I just said to her, "Call home with your cell and see if the answering machine comes on," which she did. The power was indeed on at home. So, we all headed home and watched the TV news coverage of the massive blackout in disbelief.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
It is funny for me and most of the people in the Troy, Albany NY area the blackout wasn't that long. About 20 minutes. I was working at home and I decided to call the office for some Info. While I was talking to them I was hearing their UPS's in the background. Then realizing that they were scrabling to turn off all non-critical servers to extend UPS life so I hanged up. After I hanged up my UPS went off at the same time. So I rechecked the phone to make sure it was on hooked. then I relized my clock was off and I was running on battery for my laptop (my Wireless Access Point was on UPS and the Cable Modem). I was kinda suprized that the power was out from Troy to Albany. Then I got a little woried when I heard my friend in CT had a power outage. So in about 20 minutes power was back on. And I decided to watch the News on TV.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I agree. It would be nice to take a week each year and just shut down all the power. People actually got out of the house. They we more friendly. They had to find better ways of entertaining themselves than sitting in front of the TV.
And we actually got to see the stars at night.
Heat related tragedies notwithstanding, I rather enjoyed the power outage.
One nice thing about the electrical grid in the state of Texas is that it is, pretty much, it's own selfcontained grid.
Rather nice considering the state of the other two main grids in the country.
i left work at 4:05, a few minutes before the blackout, and my coworkers had to walk down untold amounts of staircases as i would learn later.
walking home, i noticed people filing out of upscale shops with alarms going off on 57th st in midtown manhattan. it was kind of funny: the whole block is out of power, the snobs can't get their overpriced crap, haha.
but as i got closer home, and the streets filled with more and more and more people, and the gridlock and honking horns ensued since the traffic lights were out, and i watched people unable to operate their cell phones, and fighting over access to the public phones, i started to lose my sense of humor.
than a red-faced guy ran by: toronto is out! he was shouting.
i survived sept 11th (until that day i worked at 5 world trace center, which was reduced to a charred husk), so this was now very not funny.
when i got home, i speculated with my super that is was either the heat, the latest windows wonder worm making it's rounds, or al qaeda.
but the night was, with relief, uneventful. listening to the radio, i learned the last blackout in nyc decades ago was filled with looting. but the bars around times square were doing smashing business: they lost refirdgeration, so they had to get rid of their beer anyways, and no one could get home or do anything productive, so everyone was getting drunk.
so a night that i thought would be spent in paranoia and fear, was spent with happy drunks and a sort of casual immediate sense of community, what with thousands of people sleeping in the streets in tims square.
the morning was filled with satellite news crews from everywhere (so that's what bill hemmer looks like in real life) making grand standing journalism in times square, jockeying for good vantage points on every corner, so clearly, it was now a comic circus again.
everyone walked everywhere, which is good for your heart, and people were filled with drunken wonder, not terror, so the blackout in times square was, in recollection, not so awful.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Bruce Schneier put forward the hypothesis that the problems at FirstEnergy were caused by the MSBlast virus. The company is generally considered the place where the problem could have been prevented, but their operational computers failed to sound the alarm at the critical moment. In fact, "for over an hour no one in FE's control room grasped that their computer systems were not operating properly, even though FE's Information Technology support staff knew of the problems and were working to solve them." What "problems" were these? Well, we don't know, but this happened at exactly the time that MSBlast was spreading...and isn't that just...interesting.
It's only a hypothesis, of course. His argument is basically, "Here's some really, really compelling circumstantial evidence; somebody should look in to this."
I wonder: Did anybody look into it? Has anybody heard any more about this intriguing theory? Do we know what the problem with the operational machines actually was from this new report? Just what problem was FirstEnergy's IT staff fixing?
Curiously, I work at a research hospital with a large collection of refrigerated brains (no kidding, honestly), so we have our own power backup and probably would have stayed up anyway. (Of course we pump out juice to the local town when they're low, so it's possible we would have been dragged down with them.)
Well, they were similar to many people's memories from that night. I've always dreamt of seeing Manhattan without lights, I just didn't think it would ever happen.
At about 4:30 (when the UPS's died) we left. At this point we knew a couple of things. The entire North East had lost power, up to Ohio and parts of Canada. We knew nothing else since we didn't have a radio with us, so I left to go home and was a bit worried about what actually happened. I found out on the streets while walking from Wall St. to the Brooklyn Bridge. On the way there, I decided to go to Heartland Brewery and have a few pints. After it got dark they kicked everyone out because we couldn't see anymore. They had also run out of all alcohol mixers, so it was beer only (until they ran out of that). Luckly beer was powered through with kegs and tanks, so beer flowed plenty. I was there with quite a few travellers and NYers alike. 8PM I decided to take the long walk home. Wow, so many people, and I got a great picture (mirror please...) of the NY skyline. Anyway, get across the bridge, and swarms of people are helping taffic - pretty cool, because otherwise it would be complete chaos. I was also greeted by the borough president - I guess he had nothing else to do.
Finally, walking down Atlantic Ave (quite busy avenue in Brooklyn) all the stores had set up on the street and so had the Deli's. Everything was cheap and everyone was drinking beer to keep cool. Who needs water? People were everywhere sitting on their roofs and stoops hanging out with friends and relaxing. People were running on the less crowded streets and playing games until it was too dark, and then the bars. My god, the bars were crowded that night. Every bar on Smith St (where a lot of bars and restaurants are in Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill area) was completely packed. It was a lot of fun. That was a great night to meet lots of random people and just laugh at the fact that no one has power.
I can't remember anything terrible that happened that night - except that I had to go to work the next morning and wait outside my building till 2pm (eventually went home because I wouldn't get in until after the market closed). Hey, if the blackout can happen again, so can all the fun. All in all, NYers pulled it together and helped each other out where needed, and managed to have fun at the same time. I'm just glad I lived in Brooklyn at the time and not upstate NY like some of my co-workers...
"Time is long and life is short, so begin to live while you still can." -EV
I was working graveyard shift at the time, so I was asleep when it hit. My UPS started squawking at me when the power failed. My cable modem showed no signal, and I decided not to bother. Power down on both (ext3 is nice!) and just went back to bed. When I woke up to start my day (night), everything was back.
I still would have had to go to work that night. The factory where I was working, had been deemed "critical" by the US gov't when it was built, so it has its very own power plant, which is always warmed up and ready. And they found out that day that it was still in working order.
That's not exactly the way I remember it happening..
Memories... Blackout 2003 - Detroit, Michigan.
It was dark, but only when I turned my G2 Nitrolon off.
Seriously though...
I enjoyed the time away from the computer as we visited with neighbors and enjoyed the cool-ness of the basement (finished) when in the house.
Interesting to hear about how people starting panicking after only 12 hours of being without power. Looting was minimal though, which was pleasantly surprising for the area we live in.
I think if the blackout had lasted much longer it would have gotten worse... since the average person does not keep enough food/supplies in their house to survive for more then a few days.
It was really a non-event for my family and me.
> If you lived in the Northeast US or Canada what were your memories of the August Blackout?"
My memory of the blackout was first: 'darn, my power went out. I wonder if someone hit a pole'.
With by the realization that power was out as far as I could see I switched to mild panic wondering if this was the beginning of a massive terrorist attack (I'm in New York). The phones were out, cell phones were out as well, I had no battery powered radios so there was no way of getting information. I was wondering how in the hell I would get my family off of an island with millions of people. I can't get off this island in any reasonable time under normal conditions.
So I filled up as many bottles as I could find with water and put them all in the basement. I figured if the infrastructure went to hell I would need water for my family. I figured I'd hear about any contamination in the water within a few days and we'd drink juice and soda until then.
Then I found out it was a blackout and we had a barbecue with the neighbors and the kids had a great time playing with their dad who for once wasn't working all day.
It's nice to remember once in a while that it doesn't take much to be happy.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
I also remember that the Daily Show played a lousy clip show that night. I was upset... I had hoped they would have battery-backup or something, and was looking forward to the Hillary Clinton interview (that was done later and turned out to be as boring as everyone else expected).
Er - that's about it, though.
I think some parts of MA were hit, but I live in the north-east section of MA, so the lights stayed on. Still plenty of people managed to panic anyway, thinking that the lights were going to go out "any minute now" but they never did. Apparently we just got lucky, though. Although I'm curious if our town would have lost power, since its public power system has proven to be very reliable and gets power from many sources. It's always fun when a snow-storm knocks out the surrounding towns power and our lights stay on. :)
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Black out happened, was (obviously) on my computer, and cussed considerably. My GF and I decided to get something to eat: but thought everything was closed. so I thought.. hmmm SUSHI!! and sure enough, we got a great deal at a sushi bar in "the Beaches". Later that night, we were lucky enough to be at a Thai restaurant, having supper by candle light.. one of the most memorable events of last year for me.. Toronto was nice and peaceful... and full of stars..
Blistering hot (No fan or A/C)
Hungry (resturants closed, stove don't work, only corner stores open, and only non-parishables available - chips do not a meal make)
Poor (Lost many hours of work - cost me about $365 canadian)
Bored (Tv, Computer, internet.. ect.)
Eyes hurt (reading by candle light is quite hard on the eyes)
Scared (within minutes of the blackout, I heard about 15 car alarms, and started hearing on my wind-up radio that ppl were rioting in some cities)
REALLY ANNOYED (I could see the lights at my office come on from my home.. whent in to get news via internet and do some work, then the lights when on across the street, and off on my side, then on, then off, then on.....)
Reality is in the mind of the beholder - me 1996
US Immigration wouldn't let us get off the plane with the ladder trucks so they flew us across to Minneapolis a few hours later. After another few hours I finally got through immigration only to find that my luggage had been lost!
Not the best day ever, and the airline refused to either put us up or refund the $120 it cost me to grab one of the last hotel rooms in a local Holiday Inn.
Finally got to Dallas the next morning, got my luggage delivered to Oklahoma the next day (on a Sunday too - woo yay!), and received a nice "thank god you got here ok" present from my fiance which more than made up for the previous day ;-)
I live in a rural community near Bay City, MI, which was not effected by the blackout. However, my mother was out in Minnesota and insisted that I spend that two weeks with my grandmother. And that was the day Gramma decided to take us down to Flint.
For those who don't know, Flint, Michigan is somewhere between Saginaw and Detroit, and is one of the slummiest, most awful cities in Michigan.
And yet, Flint had power.
We were in transit when the blackout occurred, and were oblivious. We arrived at my grandma's old house, and I got myself a glass of water becuase it was such a hot day and plopped down in front of the TV--Flint has more cable channels than my rural home.
I saw on the news stuff about the blackout, and my thought involved some expletives. When we finally got to Local news time, I heard about the boil alert on Flint water, becuase Flint gets its water from Detroit.
-_-
So, I went two days without a shower becuase I didn't want to get the water in the numerous little cuts in my skin (I'm a pathophobe). I spent two days drinking pop becuase it was all we could find. On day three or so, Gramma and I spent a few hours on a wild goose chase to find drinking water becuase I was getting dehydrated. It's kinda funny, actually--it was the 16-year-old girl getting dehydrated, and not the 66 year old woman.
And of course, Gramma refused to go back to my home up north, where we had full power and well water.
I would later remember that one of my friends lived in New York, and later discover that one of my Canadian friends was going to attend some kind of conference in the states that weekend, but didn't becuase it was in Pennsylvania. But aside from reeking for a few days, I was prettymuch uneffected
So, I didn't get to see any city skylines in the dark. Wouldn't be a big deal to me. I'm a country geek, and where I live you only have to be maybe a quarter mile outside city limits to have a perfect view of the sky.
I'm up in Sault Ste. Marie ON. We went accross the river to SSM Michigan where they had power! Bought ice, wind-up clock, beer, batteries for the radio, and went to Pizza Hut. Came home and listened to the CBC while we drank out on the front steps.
That was a wicked cool night. So quiet and calm.