Let there be LIGHT!

"Paige" <ppwalker.TakeThisOut@sympatico.ca> writes:

 >Actually, I shouldn't complain. We got off relatively easy here - only 13
 >hours of no power. Only drove during the first few minutes - I was already
 >in the car on my way to get Amanda from daycare when the full extent was
 >realized - and people were in relatively good humour. Was anyone else
 >affected?

The DC area wasn't hit, but while we didn't have any outages there was
a report that the transients did reach College Park (just inside the
northern part of the Washington Beltway). News stories reported lights
flickering there (University of Maryland campus) at 4:11 when the
dominos fell.

I'm not certain if we got the transient in my office in the northern
Virginia suburbs (also just inside the Beltway); our third big office
building is just getting its final connection to the power grid and
we've gotten used to occasional hiccups in the power mains. Since I
didn't find out about the outage until late Thursday night (our
fiber lines DC to headquarters in the Boston area never went down)
I didn't bother to notice the time when my UPS beeped.

Joe Morris<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Let there be LIGHT! 

Joe Morris wrote:
<snippage>
 >
 > I'm not certain if we got the transient in my office in the
northern
 > Virginia suburbs (also just inside the Beltway); our third big
office
 > building is just getting its final connection to the power grid
and
 > we've gotten used to occasional hiccups in the power mains.
Since I
 > didn't find out about the outage until late Thursday night (our
 > fiber lines DC to headquarters in the Boston area never went
down)
 > I didn't bother to notice the time when my UPS beeped.

We were *very* fortunate here in eastern PA - no problems at all.
Didn't even know anything was wrong until we saw it on CNN.

Of course, I'm going to have to harass my friend, Netty, who
lives in Akron,Ohio where the whole event apparently started.

--
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Carpe Bean<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Let there be LIGHT! 

"Purrt" <ivaf RemoveThis @ptd.net> wrote in message
news:wx50b.200$6e5.45427@nnrp1.ptd.net...
 > Joe Morris wrote:
 > <snippage>
  > >
  > > I'm not certain if we got the transient in my office in the
 > northern
  > > Virginia suburbs (also just inside the Beltway); our third big
 > office
  > > building is just getting its final connection to the power grid
 > and
  > > we've gotten used to occasional hiccups in the power mains.
 > Since I
  > > didn't find out about the outage until late Thursday night (our
  > > fiber lines DC to headquarters in the Boston area never went
 > down)
  > > I didn't bother to notice the time when my UPS beeped.
 >
 > We were *very* fortunate here in eastern PA - no problems at all.
 > Didn't even know anything was wrong until we saw it on CNN.
 >
 > Of course, I'm going to have to harass my friend, Netty, who
 > lives in Akron,Ohio where the whole event apparently started.

Are they sure of that yet? I was having a wonderful time on Friday morning
watching CBC & CNN (Canada and the US respectively) play the Blame Game. It
was quite amusing.

I kept hoping to see the "Did-Not-Did-Too" interviews but eventually one
gets tired of seeing the exact same information and must go outside to
play...
--
TTFN
Paige
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Let there be LIGHT! 

 > <snippage>
 >
  >>I'm not certain if we got the transient in my office in the
 >
 > northern
 >
  >>Virginia suburbs (also just inside the Beltway); our third big
 >
 > office
 >
  >>building is just getting its final connection to the power grid
 >
 > and
 >
  >>we've gotten used to occasional hiccups in the power mains.
 >
 > Since I
 >
  >>didn't find out about the outage until late Thursday night (our
  >>fiber lines DC to headquarters in the Boston area never went
 >
 > down)
 >
  >>I didn't bother to notice the time when my UPS beeped.
 >
 >
 > We were *very* fortunate here in eastern PA - no problems at all.
 > Didn't even know anything was wrong until we saw it on CNN.
 >
 > Of course, I'm going to have to harass my friend, Netty, who
 > lives in Akron,Ohio where the whole event apparently started.

PPL is a member of PJM, PJM controls where the juice from our region
goes to or from. When PJM saw what was happening, they opened the
breakers between us and New York, just like they are supposed to do. So
East of us, and North of us went dark. I was in the woods listening on
the radio and smiling. Even if we had lost power, I was cooking on a
camp stove and using a lantern for light outside.

--

I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.

Hemidemisemideity of Anonymous Eponymity
Holder of a provisional pedant licens/ce
(limited to the area of physical science)

Never trust anything that can think for itself
if you can't see where it keeps its brain.
   Mr. Weasley<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Let there be LIGHT! 

Aaron <kem_tekNOSPAM DeleteThis @hotmail.com> writes:

 >PPL is a member of PJM, PJM controls where the juice from our region
 >goes to or from. When PJM saw what was happening, they opened the
 >breakers between us and New York, just like they are supposed to do. So
 >East of us, and North of us went dark.

During the '65 blackout, there was a lot of time spent talking about
Long Island, where the power stayed up. According to the reports, the
main control operator on duty overrode the automatic systems that said
the system wasn't in danger, and tripped the ties to the external power
grid just before the fluctuations would have crashed the LI system.

My favorite story from the '65 blackout is almost certainly an urban
legend, but it claims that the Boston area generating plants were
unable to restart because they had no house power at all (insert
suitable sarcastic comments...) The story says that MIT still had
steam pressure in it boilers, so it grabbed all the auto batteries
it could find, used them to energize the field coils in the generators
in the power lab, spun the generators with the steam, and backfed
power up the distribution grid to provide house power for the
generating station. As I said, it's probably a UL but it's still
a beautiful idea.

Joe Morris<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Let there be LIGHT! 

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 12:25:17 +0000 (UTC), Joe Morris
<jcmorris.RemoveThis@mitre.org> wrote:


 >My favorite story from the '65 blackout is almost certainly an urban
 >legend, but it claims that the Boston area generating plants were
 >unable to restart because they had no house power at all (insert
 >suitable sarcastic comments...) The story says that MIT still had
 >steam pressure in it boilers, so it grabbed all the auto batteries
 >it could find, used them to energize the field coils in the generators
 >in the power lab, spun the generators with the steam, and backfed
 >power up the distribution grid to provide house power for the
 >generating station. As I said, it's probably a UL but it's still
 >a beautiful idea.
 >
 >Joe Morris

I was in Boston at the time. IIRC, one newspaper reported that a power
plant couldn't get up because the oil was too thick to move. They
chopped up office furniture, used that to fire up a steam generator to
provide the power for their heaters and pumps. But I have no idea if
its true or just rumor.
John
ICQ 15071293
AIM jdoliver98<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Let there be LIGHT!