Lets all chip in and buy them a new P4:
FirstEnergy transcripts show chaos before blackout
Wednesday September 3, 8:53 pm ET
By Chris Baltimore
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Congressional investigators on Wednesday released telephone transcripts between
FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE - News) and the Midwest power grid operator that showed growing chaos in the Ohio
utility's control room before the worst blackout in North American history.
The conversation between employees of
FirstEnergy and the Midwest Transmission System
Operator, which coordinates the region's power
grid, offers a behind-the-scenes view of how the
blackout unfolded.
Top executives of both firms were scheduled to
testify Thursday at a House Energy and
Commerce hearing on the Aug. 14-15 blackout
that swept across eight U.S. states and Ontario.
A joint U.S.-Canadian task force is poring over
thousands of pieces of data collected from utility
engineers to try and pinpoint what happened.
"We have no clue. Our computer is giving us fits
too. We don't even know the status of some of
the stuff around us," an operator at Akron-based
FirstEnergy said in an excerpt of a 650-page
transcript released by the House Energy panel.
The transcript will add to the flurry of
finger-pointing between utilities to try to figure out where the fatal flaw on the power grid began.
FirstEnergy owns transmission lines that have been targeted as a possible source of the blackout by the North
American Electric Reliability Council, an industry group.
A FirstEnergy spokesman said the firm had already notified the public about a malfunctioning computer alarm function
that could have detected grid problems, but said the Midwest grid operator had similar detection devices that were
operational.
The firm, which has denied any wrongdoing, contends that many factors figured into the massive blackout.
"It's too early to rule anything out," the spokesman said.
The first telephone conversation in the transcript was time stamped at 3:43 p.m. EDT, when the Midwest grid
operator and FirstEnergy discuss a transmission line that shut down.
According to a separate FirstEnergy chronology obtained by Reuters, FirstEnergy said the line went down at 3:32 PM
EDT because of "tree contact."
Two other calls were made before the Midwest grid operator called at 4:04 p.m. EDT to ask FirstEnergy about its
1,233-megawatt Perry nuclear plant in Ohio, which was struggling to remain operational after numerous other line
shutdowns in the area.
"Hey, we've got some problems going on over here," the FirstEnergy operator said.
"Really," the Midwest grid operator said.
"Oh, yeah. Some good ones too," the FirstEnergy operator said, indicating concern over the growing number of
transmission lines that tripped off.
Because of the lack of transmission due to other grid shutdowns, the Midwest grid operator and FirstEnergy discuss
shutting down the utility's Perry nuclear plant to avoid overloading the grid. The Perry plant tripped offline at 4:10
p.m., along with several other FirstEnergy plants, according to FirstEnergy's chronology.
Later in the same conversation, a Midwest grid operator complains: "I called you guys like 10 minutes ago, and I
thought you were figuring out what was going on there."
"Well we're trying to," FirstEnergy said. "Our computer is not happy. It's not cooperating either."
Power flow on the region's grid reversed at 4:12 p.m., which sparked the blackout that cascaded into Pennsylvania and
New York and north into Canada.
Earlier Wednesday, the House panel heard Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham say that he could not estimate when the
investigation into the cause of the blackout would end. |
