Power outages in US and Canada

Thowllly

Regular
I just read that New York, Cleveland, Ottawa and Toronto are experiencing massive power outages. Is this true? If so, is this normal? If not, what's going on?
 
Well, if it is the case they might have trouble accessing their computers to acknowledge it!! ;)
 
It is true (almost all south of Ontario is in blackout, from Toronto to Ottawa).
The DNS of the major Canada telco (Bell) are out, from what I can see too.
I guess a bunch of people are looking at their UPSes slowly dying...
 
Such massive outage can bring massive cost. I believe the last massive outage (not related to earthquake) cost about US$300M.
 
1965 and 1977... the power grid has been proven weak before... this shows its still fragile...
 
I heard that Canadians are blaming Americans and vice versa....also that there was some problem in a US nuke power plant....and that a power plant was struck with lightning..
 
It is true, got power back on sometime last night and I live outside Toronto, 7 hours down. Amazing how much we rely on power.

Canadian News states a Amercian Powerstation went down, which transfered the load to the Niagra/Mohawk Power station here in Canada which also overloaded, and down we went.

American news states just the Mohawk station caused it, who knows...all I know is we need more power :LOL:
 
Yeah, definitely true. A lot of new york state lost power, and I had heard it was up to the northernmost cities in ontario. Cut my workday a bit short though! :LOL:

I live in Rochester, NY. (For those of you who don't know, it's smack in between buffalo and syracuse) It was odd though, on the drive home it seemed like every other exit's traffic lights off of the highway had power. But man...what a mess, driving in rush hour with no traffic lights. Took me an extra hour and a half to get home. It was just odd how the power outages were so sporadic. I have to cross a bridge to get to my house, and on the far side of the bridge, power was on, but not on my side.

Bleh...well, power's back...otherwise I wouldn't be posting this.
 
Deepak said:
I heard that Canadians are blaming Americans and vice versa....also that there was some problem in a US nuke power plant....and that a power plant was struck with lightning..

As far as the canadians blaming the americans and vice versa...I'm really not sure. I'm just glad to have power back :)

I think what started the rumor about the nuclear power plant was because, apparently, when a power plant loses it's outside power source, it tries to do a graceful but abrupt shutdown. This causes a LOT of blackish smoke to be released from the smokestacks, which lead to rumors of a fire or explosion of some kind.
 
Forbidden Donut said:
Deepak said:
I heard that Canadians are blaming Americans and vice versa....also that there was some problem in a US nuke power plant....and that a power plant was struck with lightning..

As far as the canadians blaming the americans and vice versa...I'm really not sure. I'm just glad to have power back :)

I think what started the rumor about the nuclear power plant was because, apparently, when a power plant loses it's outside power source, it tries to do a graceful but abrupt shutdown. This causes a LOT of blackish smoke to be released from the smokestacks, which lead to rumors of a fire or explosion of some kind.

A nuclear power plant doesn't have smoke stacks, it has cooling towers. Black smoke from a nuclear facility would be fairly worrying.

It was probably some fossile fuel fueled power plant that purge their boilers/furnaces.

BTW. Some french nuclear power plants had to run at less than 100% production during the record setting heat wave because the high temperatures caused the cooling towers to be less efficient.

Cheers
Gubbi
 
Gubbi said:
BTW. Some french nuclear power plants had to run at less than 100% production during the record setting heat wave because the high temperatures caused the cooling towers to be less efficient.

This is also what has been causing some short local power shortages in Germany.
 
The power outage sure was fun! After I got over my initial electricity-withdrawl, some friends came over with a few bottles of booze, and well, fun was had! Not to mention that the province ordered all non-essential workers to stay home today :D (friday)

It was funny hearing some of the horror stories too, like the poor people stuck upside down on rollercoaster/similar rides at Wonderland, the multitude or powerless elevators, subways, etc etc.

IIRC, last time this happened in 1965 there was a massive babyboom 9 months later... ;)

edit: oh, and there was a 100% consensus amongst everyone on our street that <Geedub voice> "this was the work of the evildoers, and that we need to make a pre-emptive strike on the foundation of the axis of evil - Iran!" </Geedub voice> :LOL: :LOL:
 
Personally I think its so incredibly easy to bring the whole grid in the NE down, that they dont want to admit that all it takes is a major line being cut somewhere between NYC and Canada.
Also the fact that they said lightning caused it says someones covering something up, there was no lightning in the region.
Why say something so specific if its impossible to have happened.
 
Power went out at my office around 4 yesterday. It took me 4 1/2 hours to walk home to queens, where I summarily passed out at 8:30, waking up at 6am. I got home just at the end of twilight, so I was lucky, because I was still able to see just a little. Just enough so I wasn't tripping over myself on the street. No lights whatsoever anywhere = very, very dark. You could see the stars!! :oops:

Power came back on this morning at 8am sharp, and the internet followed about an hour ago.

Let me tell you this. Walking 10 miles in sandals, 90 degree weather, with a shitload of people slowing you down, is not fun.

We need a serious upgrade of our power transmission lines. You know this has given ideas to terrorists. If knocking out one station can take down 5 states, imagine coordinated attacks on key systems around the country. All it would take would be a small plane.

Not to mention that, but I must say that the cellphone companies need to upgrade their capacity. What good is having a cellphone when in a disaster, you can't call anyone? They're useless when you need them most.

Anyways, I saw a lot of shit yesterday walking through various neighborhoods. Quite interesting the places many new yorkers call home. :)

Oh and btw, these people must not have been having any fun:

capt.1060910932.blackout_ohio_ohtf101.jpg


I can only imagine what it could have been like on those rides that take you upside down and suspend you there, like the enterprise. :oops:

I'm also glad I wasn't in the subway at the time. I had intended on leaving early. Being stuck in the middle of a long tunnel like thousands were.....

capt.1060909435.blackout_nyr124.jpg


I was terrified for my mom, her husband, my bf, and my uncle. My mom's husband drives from work from upstate, so I didn't know if he'd be able to get home with all the traffic lights out. And my mom, bf, and uncle all work in high rises. I just hoped that they weren't stuck in an elevator.

Finally got through to everyone early this morning and eddie got home around 9. Our power is back on so we're able to run our AC and get things cool in here again. Thank goodness.

Well, at least one person was having fun in all this:

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20030815/capt.1060909256.bush_gh113.jpg --> Bush enjoys a blow from a muppet ;)
 
Power lines are pretty fragile, but the real problem is the structure of the power grid. For example, the blackout in Taiwan in 1999 was caused by a single power line failure (a land slide collapsed a ultra high voltage transmission line). At that time, that's the only power transmission line for sending power from south to north. The power line failure brought down all power plants in the north, including two nuclear power plants. It took one full day to recover.

We know the problem is not the line. The problem is, there should be more power lines for transmission from south to north, not just one. However, power line construction is not easy. Many people are concerned about the "power lines cause cancer" rumors. They don't want to have high voltage power lines near their homes. After that incident in 1999, power line construction becomes much easier.
 
pcchen said:
We know the problem is not the line. The problem is, there should be more power lines for transmission from south to north, not just one. However, power line construction is not easy. Many people are concerned about the "power lines cause cancer" rumors. They don't want to have high voltage power lines near their homes. After that incident in 1999, power line construction becomes much easier.

Aint that the truth.

I always get a nice chuckle out of people bitching about the evils of the power companies...how prices are too high...they cause cancer...we don't need to spend money upgrading grid technology.....save the 5 assed monkey and don't build a power line here!

And then something like this happens when these SAME people are directly inconvenienced for a day....and all the sudden "feelings change". Remarkable it is.
 
warren, michigan has partial power. I hope we can keep it on. ;) Ive been without power for almost 24 hours. Power came on about 40 minutes ago.

Wow, without power life really sucks. ;)

later,
 
Back
Top