Massive Power Outage

[Captain Kwok]

I think the reasoning behind it is, if you cut your power down to 50-60% of your normal use and most people did this - then the electrical demand would drop enough to allow more grids to be turned on. Of course, people are like "what blackout?" as soon as they get their power back on and could care less - I had people next door running 2 air conditioners for a 700-sq ft apartment! Even worse was seeing some commercial signs downtown flashing away (did you even see Times Sq in NY - lights out for a lot of people - and they got their stupid ad signs flashing away?!).

There is a lot of wasted power out there. For example, the shopping center beside my apartment has a huge parking lot that is never more than 30% full at peak. At night, they have a whole set of lights (which shine into my window OFC) that they don't all need. They could easily go with half of them turned on and still have sufficient and safe lighting for their entire lot.

Anyways, it's late, but I would really like to see more renewable forms of energy being developed. I wonder if anyone has ever thought of putting a few solar panels & storage battery on traffic lights for these situations. At least it could provide enough power to operate the signals on most days, plus store enough energy to go through most of the night...

[TerranC]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
Anyways, it's late, but I would really like to see more renewable forms of energy being developed. I wonder if anyone has ever thought of putting a few solar panels & storage battery on traffic lights for these situations. At least it could provide enough power to operate the signals on most days, plus store enough energy to go through most of the night...

I thought Ontario already uses lots of Hydroelectricity plants.

And the blackout had nothing to do with power generators. It had everything to do with old, outdated power transmission systems.

[E3]

I havent heard the news or any updates since power came back on..... but while it was out I was glued to a radio.

If you ask me, one of the minor, yet highly confusing issues for the public is that the media doesnt seem to understand the diffrent between the power plants, and the power grid.

Durring the entire blackout, they kept on alluding to the fault being the power stations, not the power grid, even though it was highly obvious if they (power plants) werent linked together with such poor emergency measures in place, none of this would have happened.

[Raging Deadstar]

I count myself lucky i live in the UK, that and i have quite a few candles in my bedroom. Though i can remember my cities Last powercut. I was alseep in the room next to the security alarm and it went off when the power cut. Boy did i get a shock

E3, regarding your signature. Nope, me and my friend have around 7 races between us, and we're in the process of setting up a history with them, and theres a few wars, mostly with mine against mine. Of course the fact you came up with those names does suggest you have issues hehe. I can't even pronounce them, and I have issues!

Now please Excuse me but it's nearing my birthday, and i'm expecting a nice present through the post *pulls out shotgun* dangnabit the postman have a tendency to leave packages outside in the rain! ahh here comes one now.....Yeehaw *shotgun bLast*

Think i replaced narf as forum insane guy yet?

[Kamog]

I wondered why the pattern of lights after the blackout looked more or less the same as before, but less bright. I guess there was at least some partial power in most areas even during the blackout?

Then I finally understood what Suicide Junkie said about lots of cars.. Oh, that light is from all the cars!

[ August 17, 2003, 19:13: Message edited by: Kamog ]

[tesco samoa]

/. had some fantastic piture links.

Ontario is blacked out ( all of it )
before

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/nightli...efore-text.jpg
after
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/nightli...after-text.jpg

I was reading about cnn's coverage.

They were reporting that there many out of control fires in Toronto and Rioting.

Gotta love CNN. They keep this up and fox will soon be seen as a real news company.

[DavidG]

Originally posted by E3:
If you ask me, one of the minor, yet highly confusing issues for the public is that the media doesnt seem to understand the diffrent between the power plants, and the power grid.

You got that right. I'm still trying to find out from the news sites what actually happened. They really don't seem to know. Any Power engineers out there who can explain these terms?

"knocked out" ie the power station was knocked out.
"Cascade effect"
"fragile" ie the grid is fragile?? WTF??

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by DavidG:
You got that right. I'm still trying to find out from the news sites what actually happened. They really don't seem to know. Any Power engineers out there who can explain these terms?

"knocked out" ie the power station was knocked out.
"Cascade effect"
"fragile" ie the grid is fragile?? WTF??

IIRC lightning hit a station somewhere (forget where) and knocked its power out. The surrounding stations tried to cover for it while it was down and they couldn't handle the strain so they too blew. This went on down the line until the final outcome as it was. But I may be mistaken on that.

[TerranC]

Originally posted by Ragnarok:
IIRC lightning hit a station somewhere (forget where) and knocked its power out. The surrounding stations tried to cover for it while it was down and they couldn't handle the strain so they too blew. This went on down the line until the final outcome as it was. But I may be mistaken on that.

There was no lightning; the main cause is still unknown, but something happened at a transmission line in ohio that caused it to go out. The power that should have been normally flowing throughout those lines were diverted to other lines, and those other lines, which couldn't handle the extra surge, went pop, taking out power stations connected to them.

That's my understanding of this whole event; other provinces and states were spared from this domino effect because they cut the connection from the falling dominoes.

[Fyron]

If the main cause was unknown, how can you say it was not lightning? Or are you just saying that there was no lightning in Ohio around the time the power grid went down?