Definition of "whiteout"? 2

[jraef]

Maybe I am just being a little dense today, but I just read the following in an on-line article (link below), and came across a term that I have not heard applied to power distribution before. Here is the quote, from the 6th paragraph:

"If the whole attempt to restructure North American electricity fails, the results will be spectacular: blackouts, brownouts and whiteouts will become as commonplace in Ontario as they are in third world countries."

What the heck is a "whiteout" in this context? So much excess electricity that light bulbs burn too bright?
(Please spare me the other jokes about snow storms or correction fluid).

Article link:

http://tdworld.com/news/Ontario-potential-disaster/

"Venditori de oleum-vipera non vigere excordis populi"

 

[cuky2000]

Check this nonsense sequence starting with black (out), then brown(out) and know white(out).

The Separation of BS from facts is one of the primarily duties of engineers.
Marketing people and sensationalist news love inventing terms to make the show more dramatic and made possible to justify the sale or hidden purpose.

Star for Jraef for the wake-up call.

 

[RalphChristie]

Maybe blackout in the nigh and whiteout in the day?!?!?
....then brownout at twilight?

Sensation...


Regards

Ralph

 

[alehman]

You might expect such silliness in the general media, but in TDWorld? While it was a quote, I think an editor should have caught that one.

 

[RalphChristie]

At

http://dictionary.reference.com/

Blackout - Lack of illumination caused by an electrical power failure.
Brownout - A reduction or cutback in electric power, especially as a result of a shortage, a mechanical failure, or overuse by consumers.
Whiteout - A polar weather condition caused by a heavy cloud cover over the snow, in which the light coming from above is approximately equal to the light reflected from below, and which is characterized by absence of shadow, invisibility of the horizon, and discernibility of only very dark objects.
Lose daylight visibility in heavy fog, snow, or rain.



Regards

Ralph

 

[peebee]

Maybe they're talking about overvoltage? Just a guess, I never heard of this either, except for the correction fluid stuff you paint onto the paper when you're too lazy to fix & reprint.

 

[buzzp]

A more localized 'blackout'? I don't know.

 

[jraef]

The more I think about this, the more I agree with cuky2000 that this is sensationalistic. I was driven to send the following email to the editor of T&D World, Rick Bush.

"In the article entitled "International Panel of Experts Warns Ontario of Looming Electricity Disaster", the author quotes Simon Fraser University Professor Marjorie Griffin Cohen in the 7th paragraph. She uses the term "whiteout" in a context implying that this is some sort of an electrical phenomenon. I nor anyone I contacted have ever heard this term used in an electrical context. I have researched the term and found no other reasonably relevant meaning. We all understand that "whiteout" means a meteorological condition, or typing correction fluid. Is this an editorial oversight on your part or am I about to learn something new? I find it interesting that a professor an Simon Fraser Univ. may have thrown out a non-sequitur term in an attempt at sensationalizing the story."

I keep thinking that if nobody calls these media types to the carpet, they will continue with this kind of sloppy writing or reporting. It will be interesting to see if I get a response. I'll post it if I do.

"Venditori de oleum-vipera non vigere excordis populi"

 

[GOTWW]

I tink the surge suppressor vendors, would love to see more white outs (ie MCOV). Or in the desert, in the case of a rare "white" rain, it plays havoc with the dirty insulators, causing outages.

 

[AusLee]

I think they mean by whiteout the fact that some areas are cut out so the only remaining areas to supply are nothing but a fraction of the generating power, and since the power generation plant cannot run on less than 30% of its rated power, the population will be receiving calls to keep their lights on and whatever heating or heavy amps app ...

 

[mc5w]

Ohio Edison also had some overvoltage problems in a village next to the Boston Mills Ski Resort. This was bad enough to explode 120 volt light bulbs and toast microwave ovens and televisions.

This would happen during overnight operation of snow making equipment. What happens when you suddenly close the throttle valve on a large air compressor or water pump is that you get an even bigger spike than when the motor controller is turned off. This is because the stored energy in supply inductance has nowhere to go except into light bulbs because there is no contact arcing to get rid of the energy like when a controller is turned off.

Eventually, Ohio Edison installed a 138 KV primary substation up the hill in Richfield, Ohio so that Boston Mills would not longer be supplied from the 69 KV primary substation that was a few more miles away. This seems to have solved the problem by reducing a lot of source inductance.

As more stress is placed on power systems there could be more instances of this kind of power quality problem especially if load shedding schemes are used and coordination of capacitors and voltage regulators is not well thought out.

MIke Cole, mc5w@earthlink.net