North America seconds away from another extreme wide-area blackout The letter states: “On the afternoon of May 27, 2005, the electricity system in Ontario experienced what has been termed as a BLIP (Blackout in Progress) in which nearly 15% of the electricity capacity of the province was shut down in a fashion similar to the start of the cascading shutdowns that caused the horrendous and damaging blackout of August 14, 2003. According to the Ontario government, Hydro One management and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) in Ontario, who are not mutually exclusive, the May 27th event resulted solely from operator error. However, according to IFPTE’s members at Hydro One, who are not only strategically important employees at the company, but are also recognized as industry experts, the principal factor of the May 27th event…was the result of the failure of two separate computerized protection systems that had been installed to prevent this very event. “How serious of a threat was the May 27th event and how would it have impacted the United States? Both IFPTE’s members, as well as independent experts in the field agree that the May 27th event was a mere 20 seconds away from reaching the proportion of the August 2003 blackout. Even more alarming is that the two protection systems that malfunctioned on May 27 th are still in service.” The letter goes on to recommend various steps that the union believes would help mitigate the risk. Read the full text of the letter here.
•Date: 23rd June 2005 • Region: N.America • Type:
Article •Topic:
Power management |
