I find the topic of why fascinating. So on the Cannada thing. I found this. It's a report, hmmmm.... well someone wrote something. What does it mean?? time will tell.
Hydro-Quebec Power Failure
"On March 13, 1989, in the early morning hours, technicians at the Hydro-Quebec power company in Montreal were in their control room as
usual, watching the maplike mimic board that allows them to monitor the condition of their power grid. That grid supplies electricity not only to
Montreal but to all of Quebec Province, to a total of 6 million people. At 2:44 A. M., a light started flashing on the mimic board: there was
trouble up north. A voltage regulator had shut down on one of the main lines that run from the La Grande hydroelectric complex in northern
Quebec to Montreal and other cities in the south. As the startled technicians looked on helplessly, a cascade of broken circuits rippled
around the province, cutting off the rest of Hydro-Quebec's generators. In all, it had taken less than 90 seconds for power to collapse in the
entire grid. The mimic board was now blinking like a Christmas tree.
But all over Quebec the lights were out. "The blackout cost Hydro-Quebec more than $10 million, and it cost the power company's customers
tens if not hundreds of millions. Although power was restored to most of the province within nine hours, some places remained dark for days.
In the post-mortem analysis, Hydro-Quebec engineers had little trouble figuring out what had happened. Their conclusion was reassuring in
one sense, scary in another. The blackout had not been caused by a design flaw, nor by operator negligence, nor indeed by any human error
at all. The source of the problem had been the sun."
Eric Lerner/(c)1995 The Walt Disney Co. Reprinted courtesy of Discover Magazine. |
