dpmac, any news on this?
EAST RUTHERFORD — A failsafe that works like a household circuit breaker is to blame for a brief blackout that plunged 81,000 spectators into darkness during Sunday’s Giants-Cowboys game, a sports complex official said Monday.
The device, which was attached to a transformer about 1,600 feet from New Meadowlands Stadium, cut power to Sunday’s nationally televised contest when it tripped for reasons that are still unknown, said John Samerjan, a spokesman for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which runs the complex.
Engineers spent Monday attempting to determine how much power the stadium was using when the lights went out and why the transformer tripped when it did, Samerjan said.
A spokeswoman for PSE&G, the utility that supplies electricity to the area, said its systems did not experience any problems that would have interrupted power delivery to the stadium.
The five-second blackout, the second outage of the third quarter, gave fans a moment to remember and witty sports writers a fresh lexicon to describe the Giants lack of power during their 33-20 defeat to underdog Dallas.
Several banks of lights went out atop the stadium about 6 p.m., just 10 seconds into second half. The game was delayed for about three minutes before play resumed in slightly dimmer conditions.
About 15 minutes later, with the Giants on offense, the entire stadium went dark. Many grabbed their cameras as evidenced by the YouTube videos and the flickering of flash bulbs that filled the stands. Others, including players, were spooked.
“I just ran for the bench just to sit down and put my helmet on because you never know what’s going to go on in that situation,” Giants defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. “But it seemed like everything went wrong today.”
There were no reports of injuries or mischief resulting from the blackout, except for a fight that broke out during the eight minutes it took for the lights to resume full power.
The troublesome transformer is not part of the months-old $1.6 billion stadium, but a substation that is owned by the sports authority and is responsible for providing power to the entire complex. It’s located on the backstretch of the Meadowlands Racetrack, on the side of the complex that hugs Paterson Plank Road, he said.
As spectators scratched their heads at the light show, workers for the complex manned the substation to manually redirect the power supply into backup equipment. The authority provides the power as part of its lease agreement with New Meadowlands Stadium, Samerjan said. In other words, the rent includes electricity.
Samerjan said staff engineers plan to have the substation ready for Sunday, when the Jets are home for a 1 p.m. kick-off against the Houston Texans. The Giants will be away in Philadelphia.
“It’s completely adequate,” Samerjan said of the electrical systems at the complex. “When you operate a major facility of this size, things do happen on occasion. We don’t see it as an issue at all going forward.”