Appal Energy wrote: >>4 blackouts in 40 years. That's actually pretty darned good reliability. > > Yeah. Especially when one of those blackouts was caused by a rodent shorting > out a transformer...... Billions of squirrel miles and only one blackout > from such a source.
Well, yes and no. The design of the grid is that no single point of failure can take the whole thing down. It takes a cascade of failures, a cascade of improbable events, to bring the grid down. But when that cascade of improbable events does happen, as we have seen, the results can be spectacular. > Still doesn't speak highly of the fragility of the grid. Nor does it bode > well for those who opt to remain dependant upon others for power. The major problem with the grid at the moment is that it is being taxed to its limits. When the grid idles at around 90% of its carrying capacity there just isn't enough left over for a good cushion. That's the major reason that this latest blackout progressed as quickly as it did. The major problem with this last blackout was the speed with which it spread. In all of the previous blackouts the progression of improbable events happened in minutes. In this last blackout it all happened in about 19 seconds. Nobody thought that such a widespread blackout could happen in such a short time, so nobody designed any systems to be able to cope with such a thing. Unfortunately, Murphy was watching. AP ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
