Trees root cause in U.S., Canadian blackout
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 Posted: 9:24 PM EST (0224 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Shoddy tree-trimming around major power lines by
Ohio utility FirstEnergy Corp. led to the failure of three key transmission
lines and was the root cause of August's massive power outage, U.S. and
Canadian blackout investigators said on Wednesday.
Industry experts say this is not the first time that trees have caused
problems, pointing to widespread West Coast outages in August 1996 triggered
by one offending tree that took out the entire grid. Big utilities typically
spend millions of dollars each year to clear away tree limbs that can pull
down key transmission lines during ice storms or high winds.
The joint government task force said the unprecedented August 14 and August
15 power outage which cascaded through eight U.S. states and part of Canada
began with something as simple as improper tree-trimming by FirstEnergy.
"The blackout was initiated when three high-voltage transmission lines
operated by FirstEnergy short-circuited and went out of service when they
came in contact with trees that were too close to the lines," U.S. Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham said.
FirstEnergy failed to conduct "vegetation management," a euphemism for
chopping away overgrown limbs and brush around its high-voltage transmission
wires.
FirstEnergy was aware of the problem, the report said. Aerial inspections it
conducted on its lines in 2001 and 2002 showed "significant numbers of trees
and brush that needed clearing or trimming" along many transmission lines,
it said.
Industry critics have cited deregulation of the nation's power industry for
cost-cutting by utilities to boost profits. The maintenance, or
tree-trimming, budget is often a target.
"It's one of the things that can get moved around in a budget," said Clark
Gellings, a power grid expert with the Electric Power Research Institute, an
industry-funded group based in California.
"Your boss tells you to cut 10 percent from this year's budget because
things aren't looking very good, and so you look around and say, well maybe
we'll delay this," Gellings said, describing industry-wide utility
practices.
Trees are a vexing subject for utilities due to landowner concerns, Gellings
said. Utilities are caught between the need to keep trees away from their
wires, and landowners' desire to preserve prized tree specimens.
FirstEnergy said in a statement that the task force report "falls far short"
of addressing all the factors that contributed to the blackout. The company
did not comment on its tree-trimming practices.
In 1996, high power demand caused a high-voltage wire in the Pacific
Intertie -- the backbone of the Western grid -- to sag onto a tree in
Oregon, which triggered patchwork outages from Canada to the Mexico border.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: The *roots* of Al-Qaida...and the blackout! |
20 Nov 2003 06:33:22 AM |
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On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 10:14:09 +0100, "WH" <bollogs@hotmail.com> wrote:
Trees root cause in U.S., Canadian blackout
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 Posted: 9:24 PM EST (0224 GMT)
Hahahahah best one I've heard this week.
"life is like a mushroom, they feed you ***** and keep you in the dark"
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| User: "CJ" |
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| Title: Re: The *roots* of Al-Qaida...and the blackout! |
21 Nov 2003 10:11:48 AM |
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<DaarkSyde@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:f3dprv85emfge9jo69tc6f1evec7diul5a@4ax.com...
On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 10:14:09 +0100, "WH" <bollogs@hotmail.com> wrote:
Trees root cause in U.S., Canadian blackout
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 Posted: 9:24 PM EST (0224 GMT)
Hahahahah best one I've heard this week.
I guess Bush got some advise from Berlusconi, who claimed the outage in
Italy this summer
had to do with a tree on the Swiss/Italian border which fell on the power
line which supplies
Italy with electricity.
Totally unbelievable crap stories.
.
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| User: "TonyZ2001" |
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| Title: Re: The *roots* of Al-Qaida...and the blackout! |
22 Nov 2003 04:10:56 AM |
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"CJ"
wrote:
<DaarkSyde@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:f3dprv85emfge9jo69tc6f1evec7diul5a@4ax.com...
On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 10:14:09 +0100, "WH" <bollogs@hotmail.com> wrote:
Trees root cause in U.S., Canadian blackout
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 Posted: 9:24 PM EST (0224 GMT)
Hahahahah best one I've heard this week.
I guess Bush got some advise from Berlusconi, who claimed the outage in
Italy this summer
had to do with a tree on the Swiss/Italian border which fell on the power
line which supplies
Italy with electricity.
Totally unbelievable crap stories.
Exactly, as if 3 months later we just found out that a tree fell down.
Sheesh.
Tony
"About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up, who will turn
their attention to the prophecies, in the midst of much clamor and opposition."
Sir Isaac Newton
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