Power outage hits up to 5M in US Southwest, Mexico

AP via Yahoo! News ^ | September 8, 2011 | By JULIE WATSON

[americanophile]

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A major power outage knocked out electricity to up to 5 million people in California, Arizona and Mexico on Thursday, bringing San Diego and Tijuana to a standstill and leaving people sweltering in the late-summer heat in the surrounding desert.

Two nuclear reactors were offline after losing electricity, but officials said there was no danger to the public or workers.

San Diego bore the brunt of the blackout that started shortly before 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT, 2300 GMT); most of the eighth-largest U.S. city was darkened. All outgoing flights from San Diego's Lindbergh Field were grounded and police stations were using generators to accept emergency calls across the area.

Parts of Orange County regained power Thursday evening, but officials said most people would remain in the dark through the night.

The outage was likely caused by an employee removing a piece of monitoring equipment that was causing problems at a power substation in southwest Arizona, officials said. The power loss should have been limited to the Yuma, Arizona, area. The power company, Arizona Public Service, was investigating why the outage wasn't contained.

[americanophile]

This was earlier reported as San Diego, but it's much larger than that. 5 million people?!

[Little Pig]

I noted that the outage knocked 2 nuke stations offline. I have to wonder why the nuke stations cannot continue to deliver power without outside power coming in? Can they not use some of their own generated power to maintain whatever equipment needs it (presumably transmission/transformer systems)?

[hatfieldmccoy]

Minorities and children hardest hit.....

[hatfieldmccoy]

oh wait that IS San Diego...

[BuckeyeTexan]

[americanophile]

LOL

[americanophile]

Forbes is reporting 6 million. Imagine if this was the northeast instead of the southwest; it would be wall-to-wall coverage.

[Domangart]

It has to due with potential. You can not send down all that power without usage.

[PA Engineer]

It has to due with potential. You can not send down all that power without usage.

yep. Or sync it without backup generators.

[napscoordinator]

Hopefully this gets taken care of soon. I bet they will find a way to send the bills to everyone.....UGH!!!

[Deo volente]

So one employee messing around with some equipment can cause five million people to go without power for a day or so?

Something doesn't make sense here. Please tell me it's not that easy to cause havoc like this.

[Raycpa]

Part of the credible threat?

[de.rm]

"..click, . . . D O H !

[NoLibZone]

Whats worse it can be done in a very small town!

This will not go unnoticed.

Yuma could be seized by 6 cartel guys in dune buggys.

[Celtic Conservative]

I'm sympathetic. I just spent two and a half days without power. It would've been back sooner, but My utilities trucks were still on the E. coast and had to be recalled. Boom! , instant Amish.

CC

[newzjunkey]

This was earlier reported as San Diego, but it's much larger than that. 5 million people?

I know we don't get much press but we do have 3 million here according to the 2010 census.

Power back in north eastern San Diego.

[newzjunkey]

Yuma could be seized by 6 cartel guys in dune buggys.

I've been to Yuma a few times. I think you overestimate the forces needed!

You're absolutely correct, though, this vulnerability will not go unnoticed.

[toomanylaws]

“Part of the credible threat?”

Probably just Arizona getting back at California for boycotting their state over the immigration law that they passed. Who needs who more?

[p. henry]

The part of San Diego in which I live is now back on the grid. I actually enjoyed our ten or so hours without power - candlelight, self-produced music, gazpacho from our garden, conversation; and, when the going gets tough, the tough raid the wine cellar. Life is good.

[9YearLurker]

Is this the result of a “smart grid”, that one employee’s swapping out of one piece of equipment can put 5 million people in the dark?