Massive power failures hit United States and Canada

No, wouldn't that be GIYF? Although there is a "G" in RPG, so that must be the "Google" part. Can't make out the "RP" encoding, though. What language is that?

(Sorry. Just trying to delay going out to mow the lawn for a few more minutes...)

Ok thanks :)

Hmm . Thermite grenades with timers . Nasty ...

-A

I'd think the consuming part may play a role too. I suspect consumers of power increasingly have 'negative AC resistance' properties. Computer power supplies output constant power, but so may electronic fluorescent ballasts and 'inverter' driven A/C (i.e. frequency converted from an intermediary DC supply).

Have anough of this type of load, and a brownout will lead to collapse, I suppose.

As for the financial reasons: it is much more profitable to deliver power 90% of the time and forget about peaks. In Europe, power on the spot market during the hot days was about triple that of the normal rate. High consumption, little cooling water... Cheaper to have it go out then... :(

Thomas

I heard on the news that London had a blackout for a few hours, nothing as bad as the eastern U.S. But still it's enough to punch a hole in that person's claim that Europe doesn't have blackouts.

In my own experience, if you look at it micro and not macro, there are many more power outages caused by local failures than by major outages. We have had many outages in the last few years at work, all caused by local failures. Some drunk wraps his SUV around a power pole and ends up knocking the power out to the whole neighborhood. It's kind of a kick to watch the 12.5kV lines frying the concrete in the gutter, or cooking the asphalt. The firemen get out their ropes and try to move the downed lines out of traffic, and that's always entertaining. One time a tree trimmer got fried by the HV lines.

Fortunately our computer rooms have a 150 kVA UPS and a 300 kVA Caterpillar generator as backup. One new years holiday the gen ran for over a day and a half, used up the whole 300 gallons of fuel so the tank had to be refilled. Thanks, So. Calif Edison.

But macro failures have more impact, also on the individual level.

At least you could get fuel. If half the country is down, traffic is jammed, and everyone is trying to get diesel at the same time, things may look worse.

Not to mention the difference in supplying extra law enforcement for a neighbourhood versus for a state or 2.

My employer claims the distribution network they run in the Netherlands is redundant for most users. Where it is not, a transformer on a truck can be driven in and wired up. But outages do happen.

Last year an underground cable more or less exploded after a short (I guess a 3 phase 400/230 volt cable). We were without power for more than an hour. I guess this happens every few months or so, but affects only a limited number of blocks. And on that level there is no redundancy for ordinary households.

Then there was a later outage in november 2002, also partial city, that took out the power to the internet exchanges and some nearby area. One of them didn't have UPS facilities at the time (tells you something about perception of reliability - that location has been in service since 1996 without dire need for UPSs - though some customers provide their own) and went down.

Thomas

But the macro failures are often more serious to the indivudual. If your power is out, if you can drive half a mile and get fuel, or walk to an open macdonalds, it's not so bad.

If it's out for an extended period (2-3 days) a lot of people will be really struggling to cope. Everything from people having no way to heat water to wash babies, to the elderly being unable to contact relatives for help due to flat batteries.

If it's very local, there are often ways of doing most of these outside the home for a few days.

I will note that though I'm in Scotland, some way from the most recent power cut, I've just bought a generator, which I plan to alter so that I can run it from petrol, natural gas or the large propane cylinder I have, in addition to several old car batteries and an inverter, "Just in case".