Posted on 03/23/2004 4:56:33 PM PST by Robert357
After conducting a preliminary fact-finding investigation into the power outage that affected Southern California Monday evening, March 8, 2004, the California Independent System Operator (California ISO) found that operator error contributed to the slow response to a late afternoon spike in electricity demand.
The California ISO issued a transmission emergency at 6:22 p.m. Monday night when power lines in the central portion of the state overloaded. ISO operators gave instructions to Southern California Edison (SCE) to “shed load” or interrupt electric service for 20 minutes between 6:30 and 6:50 p.m. The power outage affected about 70,000 SCE customers.
The emergency came after warmer than anticipated temperatures caused a jump in electricity demand in Southern California. The ISO had anticipated the higher demand for electricity and many power plants were put on standby to meet this first high electrical load of the year. After examining the course of events, the California ISO said it is clear that control room dispatchers did not call on the power plants fast enough to “ramp up” output. Demand for electricity continued to climb into the early evening, but the units could not increase their output in time to match the need for electricity. As a result, a set of lines known as Path 26 overloaded as electricity from Northern California tried to meet the demand in Southern California.
As a precautionary measure to avoid a larger-scale outage Monday night, the California ISO, through emergency orders, asked SCE to reduce customer demand by shutting off power to a limited number of customers for a short period of time.
The California ISO is taking the following actions to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future:
* Immediate implementation of specific performance improvements and training for control room personnel.
* Disciplinary action against personnel who failed to follow operations procedures.
* Review of emergency procedures, in coordination with participating transmission owners.
“We thoroughly assessed what occurred Monday night and determined that it was an isolated incident,” said ISO Vice President of Operations Jim Detmers. “Because this was not a supply deficiency, it should not be seen as having any bearing on grid conditions this summer. A full Summer Assessment report forecasting supply/demand for the upcoming peak season will be released next month.”
They have also stated that everything should be just fine this summer, just trust them.......
Next, I guess the California ISO still has not gotten its act together. I wonder if they ever will and what it will take for the electric power consumers of California to finally demand accountability.
I think that the ISO is about as serious about reliability as Brittney Spears is about modesty.
Yeah , right!
Thanks for posting this,
We kept up in your absence. Covered this about two days after it happened.
Good old Path 26 is still the bottleneck from SoCal to NorCal and now we have another bottleneck between Mexican power and anything north of San Diego County.
Path 26 was at a full 3400 Megawatts that afternoon and the demand kept right on rising.
I just got mine offa screen that is four stories high and four stories wide in 3-D at the IMAX Theatre in Sacratomatoe!!! Thay gots multi-megy-watt speakers in that place... What a trip!!!
Took Mrs. Wasper for her B-day and she accused me uv tryin ta kill her when that danged wheel came off and flew right inta her 3-D glasses!!!
Robert! Welcome back!!! We missed you!!!
Dat's ok, Ernie, dese guys are alla buncha govermint sundowners anaways... Their forheads be slopin an dere nuckles be draggin an leavin sucha weird trail that dere buddies trackin 'em be's thinkin they be followin a troglodite on trainin wheels!!!
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