>From: Dwayne Monroe <idoru345 at yahoo.com>
>
>What the fuck is going on over there?
>
>*******
>
>
>Just so happens I'm consulting at one of the power
>firms and have a lot of real-time data.
>
BBC Monitoring
Russian top energy officials comment on vulnerabilities of US power system
Source: Radio Mayak, Moscow, in Russian 1400 gmt 15 Aug 03
The power blackouts in the USA are indicative of fundamental systemic technological problems, according to the head of the Unified Energy Systems of Russia, Anatoliy Chubays. Similar blackouts could not happen in Russia thanks to the centralized control system managed by controllers, according to Georgiy Kutovoy, the head of the Federal Energy Commission. Kutovoy added that the Russian approach of cutting off consumers early makes it possible to localize accidents. The following is an excerpt from a report by Russian Mayak radio on 15 August. Subheadings have been inserted editorially:
[Presenter] This is not the first large failure of power systems in America. Altogether, there have been 17 of them. However, the head of the Unified Energy Systems of Russia, Anatoliy Chubays, said that nothing of the kind - either in respect of the scale or the duration of the blackout - has taken place in the history of the world energy industry. Within seconds, over 60,000 MW of power supply failed. This is the same as one third of Russia being left without electricity.
Fundamental systemic problems
[Chubays] This does not have precedents as far as the duration is concerned. The inter-system accidents which took place here, both in Soviet times and later in Russia, were normally to do with losing power if not for minutes then for an hour or an hour and half. Practically never longer. [Passage omitted]
The fact that this was not the first accident, but the third of the large ones, whereas in addition to the large ones there has been a string of smaller accidents, signifies for me, no doubt, that there are fundamental systemic technological problems in the way the power industry as a whole is set up in this region. [Passage omitted]
[Presenter] Under orders from Chubays, an analytical group was set up today at the Unified Energy Systems of Russia, which should study the circumstances of, and the reasons for, the accident in America. According to Chubays, the conclusions of the group should prevent similar technological disasters in Russia. By the way, Chubays thinks that in our country these are less likely thanks to a more reliable system of anti-accident protection.
Impossible in Russia
A similar view is also held by Georgiy Kutovoy, the head of the Federal Energy Commission. He thinks that power accidents similar to the one that took place in America are simply impossible in Russia.
[Kutovoy] I think such an accident is ruled out in principle in our situation. Judging by the information we have - although it is contradictory in respect of the causes of the accident - of course, we cannot have such accidents. The reason for this is that we have a centralized control system managed by controllers in a single unified system from the Far East to Kaliningrad. Whatever accident happens, it should be localized near its source. For this, a very complicated system of anti-accident control has been built.
In America, there was a cascade of failures of automatic systems which led to such results. Thus, it follows that American designers and engineers responsible for the system did not provide for such accidents.
If one looked at the scenario of, say, lightening damaging a large sub-station on the Niagara cascade of hydro-electric power station, failure or fire at this sub-station could affect automatic systems on all power transmission lines, say, going to America. If I am not mistaken, there are five such lines. This is, indeed, quite a serious difficulty for the receiving system, which all of a sudden has to deal with such deficit. In order to cope with such deficit, one has to mobilize one's own capacity. It appears that they did not have enough of it. But they do not have a system for cutting off consumers in such cases, whereas we do. For them, cutting off consumers is a whole story with serious consequences.
Cutting off consumers in time is to save them
Here [in Russia], the system is viewed as a technical one where the development of an accident is treated as an emergency, and to cut off a consumer means to save him, rather than the other way round. Keeping a consumer connected to the system during any accidents means that his future situation can be exacerbated. This is because the supplies of power that did not cope will be switched off and the accident continues to spread.
Our approach is to mobilize all our capacity, first of all, and then, if this is not sufficient, to deal with the system of consumers [i.e. start cutting them off].
In the American systems, the cutting off of consumers is the worst crime. Any power cut brings about claims for compensation and the like. Therefore, in the USA, the likelihood of such accidents, of course, is great.
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