power outage

Smart Grid Could have Aided Storm Sandy Recovery

By


Some US utilities could have weathered Hurricane Sandy better than they did if they had invested in smart grid improvements such as smart-metering, outage management, and distribution management systems, a senior GE official said.

John McDonald, Director of Technical Strategy and Policy Development for GE Digital Energy, said utilities that have not yet installed the technology would have known about outages more quickly, been able to swiftly identify their locations, and been able to assign repair crews more efficiently if they had the enhancements in place. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 5, 2012 at 12:00 PM

Decentralized Renewable Energy Systems Will Make Us Less Vulnerable to Hurricanes

By


It was stunning to see just how fast Sandy shut down the northeast’s electrical systems, leaving people powerless in more ways than one. The storm’s flip of a switch effect was because our electrical generating systems are so centralized.

Not one to mince words, Governor Cuomo called New York’s electrical system “archaic and obsolete.” “The utility system we have was designed for a different time and for a different place,” he said, it “is a 1950s system. We’re going to have to look at a ground up redesign.” Keep reading →

 /  Published November 27, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Sandy Fallout: Utility Exec Resigns, NY Governor Demands Answers, Lawsuit Filed

By


Long Island Power Authority, which at one point had 1.1 million customers without power in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, said Wednesday it is close to restoring power to the last 8,000 homes and businesses that can receive power – more than two weeks after the hurricane ravaged the East Coast leaving more than 8 million customers in 21 states in the dark.

But there remain some 38,000 customers in the areas of Long Island that flooded whose homes and businesses need to be checked and/or repaired before they can have their service restored. Consolidated Edison and New Jersey Central Power and Light also have thousands of customers in a similar predicament, according to CNBC. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 16, 2012 at 2:30 PM

EIA Chief Discusses Storm Sandy Response, US Energy Production Sustainability and More

By

Shell Oil President and Director Marvin Odum speaks during a plenary session on the first day of the Energy Information Administration energy conference April 26, 2011 in Washington, DC.

EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski highlighted the administration’s rapid response efforts during the recent hurricane crisis in the northeast and was enthusiastic about the organization’s prospects going forward while giving a breakfast presentation at the US Association of Energy Economics North American Conference in Austin, Texas. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 7, 2012 at 1:30 PM

Addressing the Blackouts in India: One Company’s Perspective

By

Indian passengers sit on the railway tracks near the platform of Sealdah train station waiting for the resumption of services during a power failure in Kolkata on July 31, 2012.

Even on a good day, millions of people in India are without access to electricity or deal with power outages on a fairly regular basis. However, the massive power failures that hit the country during the last days of July were striking in how widespread they were. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 2, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Solar Flares Endanger Nuclear Plants, Power Grids

By


To the experts, it’s a Geomagnetic Disturbance, or GMD. To most of us, it’s a solar flare.
Whatever its name, it can fry a large electricity system, burn out controls, and black out square miles in seconds, like the massive flare that brought down the grid in Canada’s Quebec province for nine hours in 1989.

Now, the power industry and regulators responsible for electric reliability are trying to figure out how to stop it, or at least minimize the potential damage. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 19, 2012 at 8:30 AM

‘Smart Meters are not Smart Grid’

By


Smart meters are great, limits remain: An outage further up the delivery chain for power means no information for them to consolidate and analyze.

It is now well known that the US power grid has reached its twilight years and requires massive capital investment to overhaul. Sensor technology is a less expensive option than replacement that can help extend the useful life of elderly equipment. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 8, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Smart Systems Protect Power Grids and Handle Extreme Weather

By

When the power goes out, electric utility customers want it back, and fast. Now it’s possible for a “smart” or “self-healing” electronic grid to reduce customers’ hours without power to just a few minutes. But adopting this technology is more complicated than flipping a switch. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 25, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Blackout Response: Example of a Power Outage Resolution

By


Most people don’t know what goes on behind the scenes when a power blackout occurs. This informative video illustrates exactly how a real-life extreme weather event was handled by mid-continent transmission company ITC.

On April 26, 2009, high winds in Michigan blew down 40 utility poles, which then caused two major transmission lines to “trip out.” The video follows the power restoration process step-by-step and includes footage from inside the control room. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 5, 2012 at 1:10 PM
Page 2 of 212