Free Republic

A transformer explosion in Queens sent an eerie blue light flooding the nighttime sky over New York City Thursday night, startling residents. Con Edison says a couple of transformers tripped offline at the substation at 20th Avenue and 32nd Street, sparking a fire. The explosion lit the sky so brightly that it briefly appeared to be daytime in neighborhoods like Astoria and Woodside, residents reported. Smoke arose from the source of the blue light, visible from as far as Manhattan.

STOCKTON (CBS13) — A power surge left thousands without power for most of the day in Stockton after smart meters on their homes exploded on Monday. The explosions started after a truck crashed into a utility pole, causing a surge around 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning.

CurtMonash writes "The Indianapolis Star reports that Tuesday Morning, Methodist Hospital turned away patients in ambulances, for the first time in its 100-plus history. Why? Because the electronic health records (EHR) system had gone down the prior afternoon — due to a power surge — and the backlog of paperwork was no longer tolerable. If you think about that story, it has a couple of disturbing aspects. Clearly the investment in or design of high availability, surge protection, etc. were sadly lacking. But even leaving that aside — why do problems with paperwork make it necessary to turn away patients?...

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials said an outage Monday afternoon was linked to human error at a receiving station. Power officials reported outages from the San Fernando Valley to downtown Los Angeles. Workers connected the wrong wires, causing a surge of power that led to shutdowns at three power generating stations, according to officials. Receiving stations take high-voltage power from generating stations and convert it to lower voltage. It can then be used throughout the city. Ron Deaton, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said the system is designed...

................Here's one lesson I learned quickly: The devices that are supposed to protect your computer and other sensitive equipment against electronic damage might not be doing their job. .... only three still sported lights showing that their protective circuitry was active. This is particularly important in the summer, when thunderstorms, power outages and brownouts are all too common. All can result in power surges that can fry the insides of your electronic equipment. .........Surge suppressors, most often found in power strips, deal with these surges using components known as metallic oxide varistors, or MOVs. ............ A really high voltage spike...

NORTH AMERICAN ELECTRIC RELIABILITY COUNCILPrinceton Forrestal Village116-390 Village BoulevardPrinceton, New Jersey 08540-5731 August 14, 2003 Power Outages – Announcement Starting at about 4:15 PM EDT, major losses of electric load occurred in the northeastern U.S. and Canada in the Eastern Interconnection.No cause is known at present, but the outages do not appear to be the result of a terrorist attack.The areas most affected center around the Great Lakes plus New York City, northern New Jersey and parts of New England. We do not know if these blackouts are related for sure, but it is likely.Con Edison in New York lost...

Hannity station went dead for about 20 seconds. Said he had never seen anything like it.