Power blackouts in the US

piersk

Ok, serious now, anyone heard anything more about these blackouts. I know that if you live in affected areas then you probably won't be reading this, but what are they saying caused it?

jstarkey

A fire in NYC evidentally

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=564&u=/nm/20030814/ts_nm/power_outages_ferc_dc_2&printer=1

planetsim

hmm.. fires in the US.. sorry but i gotta have a laugh. 😃😃😃

piersk

How can a fire in one power station cause an outage right across NYC?

ScubaKing22

Personally I'm already sick of hearing about it. The news stations ramble on for hours repeating the same words: There is a power outage in the NY area. OK, thanks for sharing. Now move on. They did that with 9-11 also. Yes it was a tragedy and all, but they rambled on for days about it. Thats just my two cents 😃

Weedpacket

Originally posted by piersk
How can a fire in one power station cause an outage right across NYC?

Bad infrastructural design: nothing preventing other power stations from trying to take up extra load to cover even if it meant overloading themselves.

Jeb_

I heard a whisper this morning about a station going into meltdown or something.

Or maybe that's just a chinese whisper across the news networks.

It's scary how dependant we are on electricity. Properties should all be built to be self-sufficient somehow, while connected to the main grid for reserve...

BlueMeteor

no electricity
no computer
no internet

what's life would be? want to know&want to do

BlueMeteor

Originally posted by Jeb.

Or maybe that's just a chinese whisper across the news networks.

Well....tell U the TRUTH:

NEO wanted fly into the source-code building.....so the NY government powered off...

Matrix will destroy....so hope U have a gaga time this night

piersk

Originally posted by BlueMeteor
Well....tell U the TRUTH:

NEO wanted fly into the source-code building.....so the NY government powered off...

Matrix will destroy....so hope U have a gaga time this night

Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm sorry to report that BlueMeteor has completely lost it!

BlueMeteor

Originally posted by piersk
Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm sorry to report that BlueMeteor has completely lost it!

:eek:

OK Reply just for WHY

jayant

Originally posted by Weedpacket
Bad infrastructural design: nothing preventing other power stations from trying to take up extra load to cover even if it meant overloading themselves.

yup, too bad. the system should be automatic, requiring no/minimal human intervention, if one station goes down, the stations nearby should automatically takeover.

Merve

something about grids and stuff like that...the whole thing is completely shut down! Federal and provincial employees aren't even supposed to go to work today!

Elizabeth

I laugh because when the same thing basically happened in the 70's then it was proclaimed that "the US needs to re-look at our dependency on electricity and research alternative methods for power"... ok so much for that 🙂

I'm just glad I wasn't one of those 800 people stuck in an elevator for hours... that would not have been a pretty sight. Or stuck in the pitch-black Subway car on a 90+ degree day.

And for what it's worth other cities were affected too- Toronto, Ottawa, Cleveland, Syracuse, Detroit, Toledo and places in NJ, CT and PA too, so not only NYC.

-Elizabeth

bad76

This year, in my nation,
for all summer there are some blackout, (too much air-conditioner, they're saying) and at least two day it's happened
at my office. I'm just a coder => no energy => zzZZzzzsleep! for two full day 😃

Without energy it's a nice caos...

jebster

Originally posted by Jeb.
It's scary how dependant we are on electricity. Properties should all be built to be self-sufficient somehow, while connected to the main grid for reserve...

Solar panels for electricity and for heat, Geothermal technology! Thats the way to go IMO!

stolzyboy

I live in one of the windiest places in America, it is actually statistically windier here than Chicago (The Windy City), it's just not big enough to name. Anyway, there are many, many Windmill Farms going up. They say one of those large windmills can power up to 400 homes.

BuzzLY

Originally posted by jebster
Solar panels for electricity and for heat, Geothermal technology! Thats the way to go IMO!

Yeah, sure... until we use up too much energy and everyone starts complaining about Global Cooling.

Weedpacket

Originally posted by BuzzLY
Yeah, sure... until we use up too much energy and everyone starts complaining about Global Cooling.

Oh, that's no problem: we just use more energy. Used energy => heat. Read Larry Niven's Ringworld? An entire planet had to be moved away from its sun because the civilisation's own waste heat was sufficient to keep the planet warm.

I want a decent OTEC station or few. Stick one end in an ocean trench somewhere, leave the other near the surface, use the temperature difference to produce electric current.

Heh, think about it: apart from the occasional tidal power station, all the energy we use is derived on earth from solar or nuclear energy.

dalecosp

Hmm, as for the blackout, I figure too many switching stations were running on NT/XP ... 😉

As for stolzyboy's suggestion ... I intend to buy a 'mill after I finish the house (about, oh, 20 years or so, it looks like at present) ...

... but buying the dang battery array may eat my life savings...