Florida power outage source discovered

So, one guy cut the power to millions?! :idk: Posted on Sat, Mar. 01, 2008 Engineer's mistake caused massive power outage By JOHN DORSCHNER A field engineer's error while working at a West Miami-Dade substation led to Tuesday's blackout of a million customers, Florida Power & Light said Friday. The engineer, who was not identified, was working by himself, diagnosing a malfunctioning switch. To do that, he needed to disable one level of relay protection. ''Without authorization, the engineer disabled two levels of relay protection. This was done contrary to FPL's standard procedures and established practices,'' the company said. Shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday, the engineer asked a remote dispatch center to test the piece of equipment. That caused a short-circuit, sparking an arc and smoke, which led to an instantaneous voltage drop that quickly spread across the grid, taking down 26 transmission lines, 38 substations and five power plants, including two nuclear reactors at Turkey Point. FPL President Armando Olivera said the engineer, who has ''significant tenure with the company,'' has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of an investigation. The announcement raises new questions about the reliability of America's electrical grid. The largest blackout in American history, spreading from Ohio through New York in 2003, started with a tree limb touching a power line but spread because of human mistakes in two control centers, an investigation said. In the FPL case, the engineer's error ''illustrates how a small element in such a complex system can lead to such huge losses,'' said Wade Troxell, an engineering professor at Colorado State. Systems should be built that serve as a ''smart grid or self-healing grid,'' Troxell added. CHANGES FPL has already taken steps to prevent future mistakes, such as emphasizing again to workers how important it is not to disable two levels of relay protection, Olivera said during a news conference. He said other measures were being taken that he could not discuss for security reasons. Olivera wasn't sure if substations could be designed so that it was impossible for a worker to turn off both levels of relay protection. The North American Electric Reliability Corp. will determine if the utility had erred and should be fined. That report is not expected for at least two months. The engineer was checking blades in a piece of equipment called an inductor, Olivera said. To do that, he had to disable one set of relays that can be tripped, to disconnect the equipment from the rest of the grid. ''We don't know why that particular employee took it upon himself to disable both sets of relays,'' Olivera said. When the equipment was tested, it short-circuited, causing a ''loud noise'' and a brief, intense arc that ''melted materials'' inside the device, said Olivera. There was smoke, but no flames. The short-circuit, or fault, caused a sudden dip in voltage. Because the relays had been disabled, the voltage dip surged through the system, sending off alarms and causing other substations to shut themselves. After the initial human mistake, the next three minutes were handled automatically by computers, taking equipment off line so it wasn't fried by the short circuit. Assuming 2.2 people per utility customer, about two million people statewide were affected. FPL said Friday its final tally indicated 584,000 customers lost power on Tuesday. Another 230,000 customers of Tampa Electric and Progress Energy also were shut down. For FPL's customers, two-thirds had power restored within an hour and 90 percent within two hours. Other utilities' customers also came back quickly. PROTECTIONS WORKED Vijay Vittal, a professor of electrical engineering at Arizona State, said Friday's information made sense. ''The bottom line . . . is that in spite of the human error the built-in protections in the system functioned as they were supposed to and isolated a large portion of the system and prevented further harm,'' he said. On Friday afternoon, the Turkey Point reactors were not yet back in service. Art Stall, FPL's chief nuclear officer, said the units were not damaged by the outage. The utility was taking advantage of their going offline to do routine maintenance. At least one environmentalist, however, was skeptical. ''It just speaks to our vulnerability,'' said Dawn Shirreffs, South Florida organizer for Clean Water Action. ``The idea that it's that easy for layers of protection for our nuclear reactors to be disabled is frightening.'' Miami Herald staff writer Curtis Morgan contributed to this report.

Very easy to do when you cut the offsite power to a nuclear facility with 5 units. 5+ gigawatts is a lot to lose on the system at one time. There is more to it than in this report.

Figured as much...

We felt the ripple up here. Hell we got info from canada that felt the system disturbance. It was a major event, but notice only a small fraction lost power unlike the northeast debacle a few years ago and this one was far more serious.