Why Was the Blackout So Widespread?

The owner of the transmission lines that serve the Ohio area is FirstEnergy Corporation. The recent spotlight has beeen focused on problems this company had on August 14, and how they may have helped to set off the series of events. But why some energy organizations were able to isolate themselves from the problems, and others, couldn't, will also be a source of questions. For example, New York State didn't isolate itself from the problems, while Vermont was able to.

New York Times, Matthew L. Wald, Richard Perez-Pena, and Neela Banerjee, "Experts Asking Why Problems Spread So Far", August 16, 2003 The New York Times article describes the importance of maintaining the 60 cycles per second rate. "If power plants in an area are producing less electricity than consumers are demanding, the system falls below 60 cycles per second (the frequency at which electrons in the wires reverse directions) and damage can be done to the equipment. When that happens, the plants are quick to shut down." This happens unless the plants are able to pump slightly more electrical power than needed. In this case they can stabilize the rate.

Times Wire, "Rogue Power Burst Crippled System", St. Petersburg Times, August 16, 2003

Describing his experience on August 14, the manager of the New York Port Authority's Niagara hydroelectric plant, Ronald W. Ciamaga, observed that the delicate balance between consumption and generation was not being maintained. He was watching a meter to monitor that the electric power generation was at its normal frequency for North America, which is 60-cycles/second. "I was up there in the control room," he explains, "seeing frequency variations I've never seen." The rate dropped to 57 cycles/second, when fluctuations are usually measured in the hundreds or tenths of cycles/second. Ciamaga had worked at the plant for 30 years and this was the first time he had seen such a drop in frequency. (See Matthew L. Wald, Richard Perez-Pena, Neela Banerjee, "Electricity returning to East, but big power gaps still remain. WHAT WENT WRONG: Huge power reversal overloaded system", The New York Times, August 15, 2003

Lorraine Mirabella, "Power loop probed as blackout's cause remains a mystery, Experts zero in on ring surrounding Lake Erie; answer could take weeks", Baltimore Sun, August 16, 2003

See Electricity Deregulation: What's the Issue.

Daniel Yergin and Lawrence Makovich, "The System Did Not Fail. Yet the System Failed." New York Times, August 17, 2003

David Zeman, Nancy A. Youssef, and Kathleen Gray, "Analysts Say Blackout Began With a Zap, and Then Got Weird", Detroit Free Press, August 17, 2003