"Unusual" Conditions uncovered in blackout inquiry

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/6565056.htm ^ | August 19, 2003 | Kenneth Bredemeier

[DittoJed2]

Investigators uncovered fresh mysteries Monday about the way the electricity transmission grid operated in the eastern half of the United States last Thursday in the hours before the nation's largest power blackout occurred.

Meanwhile, businesses forced to shut down by the blackout returned to near normalcy Monday. Automakers began turning out cars again and Wall Street trading resumed on time. New York City officials estimated that businesses in the city lost about $1 billion in the blackout. Tallying the economic impact in Ohio and Michigan will take longer because power was slower to return in those areas.

For full story click here

[DittoJed2]

Whatcha all think?

[woofie]

I think it was the internet worm

[Brian S]

I think it was the internet worm

As do I and nobody has the balls to admit it...

8 days since the event and we still haven't a concrete cause.

BS... They know how it happened, why it happened and how it could happen again, but they aren't telling because...it could happen again.

[MEG33]

I think we don't know yet!The theories are interesting but this will take time to sort out.The primary problem is the safety measures not working to protect against this cascading major outages.

[stylin19a]

Homer Simpson at the controls ?

[org.whodat]

8 days since the event and we still haven't a concrete cause

The cause is simple, some half trained union worker was putting additional unit on line. He allowed the system to moterize the unit he was bring on line. This is just about the only way you could get the sharp spike in power, anything else would cause a burn out.

[nvcdl]

Interesting that a gas pipeline in Arizona is out causing gas shortages the same week. Could this be an organized attack on the infastructure?

[kylaka]

No.

[D-fendr]

Du-OH!

[MEG33]

My uninformed theory was that someone turned off the safety alarms because they thought them too sensitive,annoying,loud,whatever!The fact is I don't have a clue!

[Samwise]

[JOE6PAK]

WORM. The internet went nuts at the same time. AMTRAK still FUGED UP! Another set to run today. IM signing off till Monday.

...well till Saturday morning anyway.

[r9etb]

I think it will turn out to be a three to five unrelated, relatively normal, no-big-deal-by-itself, things that happened to be going on at the same time.

I've seen multi-cause errors a number of times in the space business, where unrelated problems come together to make life very interesting.

[r9etb]

Sagged so it touched trees? Huh? The large power lines that I am aware of are stripped clean of vegetation beneath all and any lines

It happens all the time. The lines might normally be 60-100 feet above the trees, but with lots of extra power going through them, the wires become soft and sag.

[dighton]

My uninformed theory was that someone turned off the safety alarms because they thought them too sensitive, annoying, loud, whatever!

"The Captain was heard yelling 'shut up, shut up' at the Ground Proximity Warning System as it announced 'pull up, pull up.'"

[MEG33]

Chilling.

[org.whodat]

but with lots of extra power going through them, the wires become soft and sag.

I had a friend the otherday who pulled his back lifting a tire with a 100 lbs. of air in it.

[BenLurkin]

In Ohio:

"Atomic Rocket Vehicle Performance Improved"

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/RT1999/5000/5830palaszewski2.html

[hoot2]

"Homer Simpson at the controls ? "

yep; two ferc guys, sittin' right there in the control room; watching the "whole thing..."