[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Like you, I wonder what the Grid is setup for out here, any kind of problem however minor, setups instability.

Does it have to be that way?

[Dog Gone]

Robert357 is the expert. I can only speculate.

A minor line break won't make that much difference, but I'd guess that this was a major transmission line. That would make the system unstable.

We'll just have to wait for more details.

[Robert357]

Does it have to be that way?

No, but when you remove the level of reserves we were use to be required to carry, you get a power system that is very fragile.

When I submitted planning reports to WSCC (Now WECC) about two decades ago, each load control area and major pool was required to have a contingency plan for carrying load in case of the loss of the largest single generating unit. That requirement is still on the books, but the "largest single generating unit" use to be that of the utility with a control area. Now it is of the power pool (say in the PNW 12 control area utilities) and in California (say 4 or 5 control area utilities). So now when one utility gets into a really bad situation the neighboring utility is less likely to have any excess generation to help him make it through without a major outage.

I suspect that one of the intertie power station I listed in from the WSCC report was where the LADWP worker accidentally cut the line. My guess would be the DC intertie. Just a guess.