Why did the lights go out ? 1

[arunmrao]

The power outage brought out the politicians and bureaucrats at their best pinpointing faults on others a typical mindset nurtured and nourished universally. while there was no engineering comment attributing the reason for power failure even 24 hours later.

It should not have been difficult to ascertain the cause. Such occurences of power outages and their cascading effect is common in India and excepting the engineers no one bothers to provide a clarification.

Ofcourse you can also find the ubiquitious gen sets placed strategically in public places and hospitals and at all business centres,which was missing in this case.Perhaps some of these measures might have mitigated the hardships for the citizens.Alternately the solar powered traffic signals, street lighting should be considered I suppose.


Even this my favourite site was down and not accessible for more than 36 hours.

 

[TheTick]

I don't have any answers. I do find it interesting how most of the Third World is pointing and laughing.

In a way, it's a tribute to our system, how unprepared most individuals are for something like this. Unlike our friends in less developed countries, we are accustomed to the power always being there when we need it.

All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted.

 

[FrenchCAD]

And we are really dependant on it as well. Here in France, our energy supplier (Electricité de France, EDF) has currently a lot of meetings with governement to study what to do if heat continues as it goes currently, since all power units (nuclear, thermal or hydroelectric powerplants) suffer from this incredible heat we have (We broke some registered records dating from 130 years!!!) and menace to shut down.

Electricity suply is part of our basic needs and it's also our weakest point, as we saw during your power outage.

Cyril Guichard
Mechanical Engineer

 

[Hippo41]

In the UK one of the most throught provoking headlines was 'Superpowerless'. Incidents like this prove our civilizations complete reliance on electricity - and I understand we are looking at possible power cuts here in the UK this winter - so please don't think I'm pointing fingers at my US friends and colleagues only.

I sometimes wonder if instead of developing ever more complex ways of blowing each other up (again, not USA specific!) we should concentrate on keeping the lights on, and perhaps spreading a basic level of technology to those 'less fortunate' than us. Maybe that would be a more calming influence on the world scene?

(I know one possible answer - weapons are sexy, and the military drives the budget!)

Why are auto engineers chasing horsepower (500kW in a family road car?) again when surely fuel economy/ reliability is a more worthwhile endeavour?

Have we lost sight of the ball? Should these power cuts re-focus our thinking?

Lester Milton
Telford, Shropshire, UK

 

[buzzp]

I think the outage was a long time coming (at least this widespread). The longevity of consistent power is a testiment to reliability of the power. On the other hand, it also highlights our shortcomings and on the good side puts power right up front in the publics concerns. This means more funds for the power industry.

 

[arunmrao]

This clearly demonstrates over dependence on power and a comfortable thought that it is always available. No doubt it is utopian,but planners could also have planmed for the worst scenario. There is clearly a mindset in the minds of planners and also for such a simple localised fault such devastating effects should not have occurred. The systems should have been more resilient in identifying and tripping the faulty lines and automatically restoring power to other areas. This vigilance system should have been in place and in operation.

 

[Maui]

It happens about once every 20 years or so. The last time it occurred was 1977, and there was widespread looting in NYC. This time it doesn't seem as though the crime rate increased dramatically, and people were more or less civil to each other. I predict that you will see a spike in the birth rate in the Northeast 9 months from now. With no power, and nothing else to do, well...

Whoever is actually responsible for this problem will likely point the finger at someone else. We may never know exactly what happened, and yes, it probably will happen again in another 20 years or so.

 

[GregLocock]

"Why are auto engineers chasing horsepower (500kW in a family road car?) again when surely fuel economy/ reliability is a more worthwhile endeavour? "

Because people who buy cars are less willing to pay for fuel consumption and reliability than power.

I realise that that sounds very weak, but the bankruptcy courts are full of auto companies who knew better than their customers.

Incidentally the reliability jibe is a little unfair - cars are a mature technology, the ongoing improvements in reliability will only be incremental.

Our cheapest everyday large car comes with a 200 hp engine as standard. It has the straight line performance of a sports car from 10 years ago. As someone who started at BL during one of the oil crises things like that boggle the mind.

Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[arunmrao]

US turns to India for blackout advice. This is a newspaper item appearing link to which has been given below.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=154391

 

[warburton1]

I also find it strange that the increased requirements for Electricity has not been matched by the generation capability, in toronto we have seen a 46% increase in demand in 20 years and yet in that same time span generation capacity has only increased by 20% (I think that was the number).

I know its expensive to build big generating stations, but if every new neighbourhood park was built with a generating wind turbine and every large commercial/industrial sub-division was self sufficient for electricity (same manner with their own wind turbines) then the requirement for new build large generation plants would be reduced.

My current customer has just installed a new hydraulic power system for structural testing. Its a 1200Gpm (max) system that at full tilt will require approx CDN $1M per year in electricity to operate. I am sure that they should build a wind turbine in the back parking lot, instead of relying on the local grid to supply. Ah well I'll get off my soap box and go and have a beer, at least it won't be in the dark this week.

 

[PSE]

warburton,

I do not know if this would be the case in Canada but here in the US there seems to be an epidemic of NIMBY (Not in my backyard) syndrome. No one wants to have a turbine or similar generation system where it might spoil the view.

Regards

 

[FrenchCAD]

and we're not speaking about security issues...

Cyril Guichard
Mechanical Engineer