|
October, 2003 Blackout in USA and Canada on August 14 came as an unbelievable surprise to the rest of the world. Such a massive power failure in these countries, especially in the US, known to be most advanced, was least expected. What proved to be more baffling was the fact that the blackout continued for 13 long hours in New York, for 24 hours in some parts and even for 48 hours in other parts. It was natural to think and link it with terrorism but this apprehension was soon ruled out.
Life was thrown completely out of gear in the affected parts of two countries. Fifty million people of eight states of the US and South East Canada were affected. New York, Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Ottawa, Toronto and Ohio were the major stations that suffered. The power failure led to shutting down of more than 100 power plants in the US and Canada, 22 of them nuclear. The New York subway system collapsed, train services were in a mess, escalators stopped, elevators stopped, Gas supply was badly affected, and taps became dry. Flights were cancelled, looting incidents came to the fore and bus terminals were closed. Not only this, the US President had to release a message to the nation!
Looking into the finer details, stock exchanges were closed, ATMs were non-operational, traffic lights went off, traffic was in chaos, three major airports of New York plunged into complete darkness and people were asked to stay back home and to avoid coming to their work places. Power had shown its power!
The cause of power failure was not immediately known. Overloading of power grid was later ascertained as the reason behind it. The problem started in Lake Erie loop encircling Lake Erie from New York to Detroit into Ontario, Canada and then back to New York. About 300 MW of power moving East in the Northern leg of the loop suddenly reversed and started moving West causing a chain of failures in just nine seconds as the fire walls provided to prevent such a chain reaction failed.
Well, the power failure stands tackled now and the life that came to grinding halt in the US and Canada has become normal. The US has turned to India to seek advice over management of blackouts. And the incident has left the world brooding. What measures need to be taken to prevent such an incident and what to do if it happens, the world is thinking. Following are the lessons that we can draw from the massive power failure:
* Overloading of grids must be avoided under all circumstances. This lesson seems quite obvious but needs strict implementation.
* Relying on full automation can be dangerous. Provision of full automation may be made but it must be backed up by manual supervision.
* Automatic shutdown of power plants must be provided to protect them against power surges. This provision prevented damage to more than 100 power plants in the US and Canada.
* Transmission of high voltage electricity over long distances may prove dangerous. Wherever provided, it must be made fully reliable.
* Alternate backup power system for essential services should always be there. Elevators need to be given top priority followed by water supply system.
* Emergency procedures to evacuate people from elevators and subways must exist and should work well when the need arises.
* As cell phones are now becoming an integral part of human life, cell phone operators must take lesson and keep adequate power backup arrangement in their cellular stations. Cell phone system in the US broke down very soon as people frantically tried to talk to one another and overloaded the system.
* Traditional landline phone system, now being phased out slowly, should not be done away with completely as it is run on large banks of batteries and can keep working for several hours even without power supply.
* A major segment of people in the US couldn’t use even landline phones as they had maintained only cordless phone sets in their apartments. Thus provision of dial up phones with attached receivers should be maintained.
* Laptops worked well for the surfers and Internet was the hero of the day as it provided up-to-date information to the people. However, with the failure of cellphones, many of the laptops could not operate. Thus internet plus landline phone emerged as the best combination to follow.
* Another lesson that the administration of the affected parts learnt was to keep law and order situation under control as bad elements took advantage of the situation and indulged in looting people.
* The US and Canada stayed cool and swiftly took the situation under control. Initial panic created by pitch darkness as people bumped into each other, died soon. It should serve as an example to other countries.
Lastly, what could happen when everything is put on electricity must be realized. In the US, even the use of manual typewriters and preparing reports in longhand made news. Such is the extent of modernization. India, habitual of facing power cuts was looked upon for advice. Another lesson is learnt here. Standby arrangements must be given due attention as the world automates and modernizes itself more and more.
|
