What The Hell Happened?

There was a blackout here for the last 24 hours. The electricity just came back, thats why you guys didn't see any posts from me in the time period.

Does anyone know HOW this happened? I'm hearing different stories. Terrorist activities, explosion, plant struck by lightening and others. So what REALLY happened?

By the way, my faithful iBook kept me company the whole time. I put it to sleep at night, but other than that, I've been using it for iTunes and for watching a movie.

I feel sorry for the people of the past. Poor poor people..

#47522

hey taha Yeah i got affected too im down in ontario.. i had no pwoer from 4-8 pm yesterday.. i got power back and we were the only block in the city with power... i just got my internet back on today but my city is still blacked out and it sucks

i doubt it was terrorist attacks.. the mayor of toronto and ernie eves said a plant got struck by lightning causing the grid to fail that links all our powers together ..

im jsut glad i got my power back but i cant go anywhere or do anything or contact anyone outside of my block cause theres no power

-bolero

#47523

I Heard it was Some Lightning Hit somewhere around Niagra Falls and took the east coast..

#47524

Really? I've heard it was just a very well planned Flash Mob. All the people turned out the lights at the same time!

#47526

Well, there were some (albeit unsubstantiated) reports of a lightning strike at a power plant, and I've heard someone say that the MSBlast worm was responsible for taking the power grid down. Art Bell says that it was an electro-magnetic pulse, or secret experimentation with military underpinnings (read 'The Paris Option' by Robert Ludlum).

So, what was it really? I'll tell you (I'm 95% sure this is what it was):

The power grid is built kind of like the internet - when one supernode (power station, internet router, etc.) goes down, the others can pick up the slack so that no one remains without power. However, power plant building hasn't kept up with increasing power needs in the northeast (hearsay) for some time now. So, let's just say that, since its the end of summer and its hot, everyone in the northeast has their AC on, and every power station is operating at 98% capactity.

Then, one power stations goes down. The other power stations around it try to pull up the slack, but since their operating near their total capacity, they can't. So they shut down to keep from trying to create more power than they can and bursting into flame. The power stations around the ones that just shut down try to pull up the total slack, but now, there are five or six stations offline, and total shutdown is inevitable.

It's a domino effect that, within 60 seconds, has shut down the entire grid. Cute, neh?

Of course, the only option to protect against this is - you guessed it - to build in more power stations. But that's expensive. And even if we do, ten years from now, we're going to be in the same situation.

#47529

oh.. so it wasn't electricity falling on the building?

By the way, I think Soundtrack comes with FCP.

#47530

Investigators on Friday seeking the cause of the power outage that crippled parts of the U.S. Midwest, Northeast and southern Canada are looking for what was essentially "a nine-second event" along what's known as the Lake Erie Loop.

That's a troublesome series of transmission lines that encircles Lake Erie, according to Michehl Gent, president of the North American Electric Reliability Council.

Gent stressed that the exact cause remains unknown, but indications so far point to the Lake Erie Loop.

#47551

hadn't heard that one InTrIgue, that's the fourth explanation I've heard and i wouldnt doubt it (i think art bell can be ignored for the most part :canadian: )

explanations i've heard...

1)lighning strike on the us side near niagara.

2)fire at a power plant in manhattan(that was the first one being thrown about around here actually)

3)fire at a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania(sp?)

and less usefully....

4)politicians on both sides pointing fingers over the border and saying "they did it"

damn, they never stop making me laugh

..Mithandrel, I keep hearing that this wasn't a power generating issue, more a power distribution problem - ie.power use has been higher earlier this summer.

Most states, provinces have privatized generation but not distribution, thus distribution infrastructure is fairly out of date. Ie. If the region that was effected had the same safety net as the quebec grid (a dc connection to the grid), then most would be in the same boat - isolated from the specific problem areas and with full power. Just seems stupid that local grids would shut down when they could isolate from the grid and keep power up locally.

Me suspects that the problems are a result of the grid having been upgraded only to favor upping power flow to large US cities (energy flows where money flows). Money has been invested to increase flow in that direction, but little has been invested in parallel improvements in grid safety backups. I'm betting it would have been relatively cheap to prevent this problem.

I'm in Ottawa, we were down for about 12 hours... and it was damn nice! :canadian: :ninja: :ninja: :ninja:

#47561

My lights work. Cool, huh?

#47565

Originally posted by realitybath@Aug 15 2003, 11:05 PM

3)fire at a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania(sp?)

I'd rule that one out. I live 45 minutes north of Pittsburgh and if there was a fire, I would have seen it in the papers this morning.

BTW, your spelling was right.

#47615