NEWS: Much of Los Angeles Loses Power

Just read reports its all come back on...
crisis over huh ?



[edit on 12-9-2005 by Agit8dChop]

The whole thing was blown completely out of proportion. Maybe one in ten street lights were out in Burbank and Studio City. Unless you're at the filming of the Price is Right, cross the street and wait it out at Starbucks.

It was caused by worker error:

www.cnn.com...

Everyone over reacts too much on here. ;-) Maybe I'll help a little with the over reacting, it was worker "error."

Worker triggered outage by connecting wrong speaker wires.

A DWP janitor mistakenly wired his car stereo to a 750Kvac line and blackedout 10 million in Los Angeles. "It was horrible, a sweltering 71 degrees, and no AC for several minutes", said Arnie Whatzineggar. The janitor, Alfred E. Neumen, issued a public apology, but later recanted and said, "I never heards 50 Cents thump so bad on me speakers. Fo' shizzle my nizzle!"

Meanwhile if you believe it was an employee, we have Saddam's used couscous for you...news at 11

[edit on 12-9-2005 by Regenmacher]

Okay, Im going to inject some humor into this (or try to):

Putting this into a perspective we can all understand (huh oh, thats a mistake), lets say you are walking through your house.

walk walk walk walk TRIP cuss cuss cuss

It happens. You trip over a cord and it comes flying out of the wall in a mad attempt to whip you.

You dodged the cord. Your okay. Now you need to plug it back in.

Lets see here. Which outlet did that thing come out of?

Hhmmm, one outlet has something plugged into it. One doesnt.

It must of came out of the one that already has something plugged into it.

Which raises two questions;

1) How do you plug two cords into one outlet without a power strip?
and
2) Even if you can figure out a way, how do you do that without killing yourself?

Now, I know I am trying to understand apples and oranges by using my limited knowledge of circles and squares. This is just for fun.

But I'd like to know what happened to THAT guy after the fact. What did he say after he messed up? What did he say when he did it again?

What did his boss say?

Did he need an ambulance?
A therapist?
A kevlar vest?

What did he say to his family?
What did his family say to him?

How would you like to be THAT guy?

Those guys where heavy protective rubber safety gear and use insulated hot sticks.

This does not mean that the worker wasn't subjected to a major flash,
but there's no report of an injury.

Under IBEW union guidelines, he'll probably be subjected to a drug test, safety investigation
and may or may not receive a decision making day off.

Unless he was following instructions from a supervisor.

I haven't seen the news this morning, but from what I saw last night, there were three different scenario's.

(Keep in mind the utilities don't like outages and will spend considerable monies to prevent them.)

One which looked like a small - usually 120 volt - protective relay wire was cut or disconnected.

The second sounded like they were changing over to a computer controlled operating/dispatching set up and there was an error in either the connections or the software.
I doubt this was a problem since most computerized control cutovers are done a bit at a time testing as they go.

The last indicated a new line or rebuilt transmission line was connected incorrectly.
You'll note there are three conductors on AC transmission lines.
They're labeled A-B-C. (A phase, B phase, C phase.)

You'll also note there are transpositions between conductor locations in the field at a tower or pole.
Has to do with harmonics and inductive problems.

That means a line can be arranged A-B-C leaving a station and it should be A-B-C at the receiving station.
If a tranposition in the field or at the station is not done correctly you'll have an incoming line arranged A-C-B for example.

At the end of the job, field personnel will drive or fly the line making note of which conductors are which as they go.
Then, if they are sure the conductors are arranged correctly they make a formal statement saying so.

Depending on the line's voltage, there are switch panel instruments the operator/dispatcher can turn on and compare the incoming line with the station busses etc.

Higher voltage lines are done much the same way, but you can't use the switch panel instruments to make comparisons.
In this case, technicians read secondary voltages at the relays in the station.

When everybody has checked their end of the job and are sure things are correct, only then is the switch closed at the receiving station paralleling the new or rebuilt line with other lines and station equipment.

If . . . there's a total screw-up - and I find it hard to believe there would be - and conductors are mis-arranged, closing the switch at the receiving station makes for a major close-in fault (short circuit).

In over thirty years of operating major power stations I never saw a line that was mis-arranged at either end.


Human error type stuff happens now and then, but compared to the amount of operations that are accomplished the figure is very, very small.

If an employee does make an error, there's always an investigation.
First, second and third tier of supervision if the operating end of things are what's involved.

If there's a safety issue involved, the people involved in the investigation go quite a bit further up the ladder.

If the employee involved has a good track record, he gets a letter in his file.
If he has a bad track record, there's a good chance he'll be working in a different not-so-hands-on job elsewhere in the company.
Most times at a lesser rate of pay.

I don't think any of the above scenarios are what caused the problem.
Part of it can be how a particular media reporter translates what the company spokesman says and also that the company spokesman may not fully understand what happened or doesn't have the full and complete story.

Every once in a while, a newpaper reporter would come to the power station where I worked, get a tour, get the basics explained to him/her and write the story so far out of line that it was hard to believe.

Every one is an expert in one field or the other.
I'm sure most of you have had your occupation or industry written about and most times the media understanding of things is virtually nil.

All of which makes me wonder about the other things they write about.
Not so much in terms of liberal or conservative leanings, but actually understanding what the heck is going on when they write about a particular subject....

A recent power outage on my property knocked out more then some of our outlets!

About a week ago, a power surge knocked out our A/C unit. It also knocked out at least two wall outlets.

The cost of fixing the A/C alone was over $400.00US.

Then there was the power outage in LA.

Then this morning, I have to go someplace. My roommates van is blocking my car so I ask her to move it.

Her van doesnt start. The battery is dead. So we push it out of the way and I get in my car to start it.

My battery is dead to.



We jumped both with a pickup truck and all is well.

But what are the chances?

Does anyone have a clue what would cause everything (not everything but it might as well be) to go dead over such a short time span?

For my own peace of mind, I need some answers.

Is all of this related?

Thanks all.

You should have been worried if the pickup truck didn't start as well, but it did. Or if you would have noticed all cars around your area did not start.

As i was reading your story I thought I was almost reading the script for War of the Worlds. Good movie.

[edit on 14-9-2005 by Muaddib]

Originally posted by Genfinity
A recent power outage on my property knocked out more then some of our outlets!

About a week ago, a power surge knocked out our A/C unit. It also knocked out at least two wall outlets.

The cost of fixing the A/C alone was over $400.00US.

Then there was the power outage in LA.

Then this morning, I have to go someplace. My roommates van is blocking my car so I ask her to move it.

Her van doesnt start. The battery is dead. So we push it out of the way and I get in my car to start it.

My battery is dead to.

We jumped both with a pickup truck and all is well.

But what are the chances?

Does anyone have a clue what would cause everything (not everything but it might as well be) to go dead over such a short time span?

For my own peace of mind, I need some answers.

Is all of this related?

Thanks all.

Talk to your neighbors and see if any of them had what appears to be a momentary high voltage problem that damaged appliances.

As well as a very low voltage problem that hung on for a while.

Either situation can damaged rotary devices - refrigerators, air conditioning units etc.

If so, call the electric company and ask to speak to claims.
The few times I saw this happen - it is fairly rare - the utility paid to replace the customers damaged equipment.


I'm fairly sure your dead batteries in two cars was simply a coincidence.
As proven by the third vehicle that started ok.





[edit on 14-9-2005 by Desert Dawg]

Many utilities will now install a whole house surge protector at the meterbase.
My utility does so for a monthy fee of about $4.00 which covers up to $1000.
damage. I would check with your utility to see if they have any such program.

This brownout coincides with a geomagnetic storm - and is an anticipated effect.

We have a HUGE heck-of-a-lot to worry about besides terrorism. In fact, terrorism is probably the least of our problems.

Scientists have predicted four major disasters as 'imminent' - radical weather from climate change, like Katrina; geophysical changes like the Indonesian tsunami, and massive earthquakes in North America; widespread fresh water depletion; and the appearance of virulent new disease mutations, like bird flu and community-acquired MRSA, for example.

The US response to Katrina establishes legal precedents for government policy to deal with these predicted disasters - and should be evaluated as such.


So add disaster number 5 - the dissolution of democracy, as an emergency measure and government policy.