Blackout: No light on cause (news from South Africa)

[QuietStorm]

one hour ago.

Asked what specifically caused the blackout that stranded tens of millions, Pataki said "the New York independent systems operator says they are virtually certain it had nothing to do in New York state. And they believe it occurred west of Ontario, cascaded from there into Ontario, Canada, and through the northeast."

He added: "But why it happened, the specifics, why the steps that were supposed to have been been taken to prevent this from happening... those are questions that need to be answered."

Pataki stressed the report that a British-owned Niagara Mohawk power company plant was the cause was wrong, insisting the trouble appeared to have originated in Canada.

The outages have highlighted the antiquated state of the North American power system, according to many experts and politicians."This should not happen. We are in 2003.

President George W Bush has also promised a thorough inquiry into the cause.



On edit link: http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1402972,00.html

[Ediacara]

1. West of Ontario?

you mean like Manitoba? Or possibly Minnesota?

I know... Pataki's going to say that it started on Mars, just so no one asks him about the burning Con-ED building again...

[QuietStorm]

2. Here is the official line on the burning Con Ed building

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=68054#68168

[robbedvoter]

3. I live blocks away from Con Edison plant - see it when I go out

We've seen the black smoke - same thing when they had the local problem last year or the larger one 2 years ago (when Washington Heights had no power for days).
They are very sloppy and messy - living nearby means stinking fumes coming out from bellow, sometimes blowing manhole caps 2 stories high, sometimes creating hills on the roads. I had sleepless nights with Con Ed crews drilling under our windows to fix up the sources of those fumes -it is constant in our neighborhood. The payoff? we were THE VERY LAST ONES to get power back yesterday - 9:00PM. But as Bloomberg delicately put it: "Who cares if it's a few hours or a few days?" (Certainly, not him!)

[QuietStorm]

4. were there flames

as others have said they saw? And the way you describe it that may explain why the focus was taken off the Con Ed Plant almost immediately. The plant is a polluter, probably in violation of various regulations and therefore the City has a stake in it not garner too much attention, especially since it does not necessarily seem to be he cause of the outage per se.

[QuietStorm]

5. some insight into Con Ed (NY)

I did a quick googles. I guess I am not telling you anything you are not already aware of.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=682#715

on edit fixed link