John Horvath 29.09.2003 At the core of the major blackouts is the lethal combination of Nature and the human preoccupation with economic "efficiency"
The major blackouts in New York and London, in Denmark and now throughout Italy, in conjunction with the overall stress caused to power grids in Europe because of the long, hot summer, illustrate real-case scenarios for chaos. Yet are these mere warnings of a possible major catastrophe set to hit the on-line world in the near future?
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This past Sunday all of Italy found itself groping in the dark. A major blackout had cut power to some fifty million people, paralysing transport networks. Although the blackout occurred when businesses were not likely to be open and industries running, it nevertheless caused major problems, especially in Rome. The Italian capital happened to be running a program called "white night" in where museums were open all night long free of charge to the general public; extra public transport was provided to the various events.
As a result, more people were out and about then usual. Moreover, as the weather was also bad, many ended up spending the night in underground tunnels and train stations; some were even caught in elevators.
The Italian blackout also caused problems in other countries as well, such as Hungary. Two Hungarian power blocks were shut down, but the Paks nuclear plant was able to handle the surge and avoided the blackout from spreading in Hungary. By noon everything was back to normal.
All this comes at a time when many industrial countries are facing similar problems. On August 15th, unprecedented chaos broke out as the result of a major blackout along the eastern coast of the US and Canada. Dozens of major cities were paralysed for hours and tens of thousands were trapped in subway tunnels. Two weeks later, London also suffered a similar situation as a forty minute blackout brought city-life to a standstill. As in New York, many became trapped in the tunnels of the underground.
The mid-August blackout wasn't the first of its kind in US history. In November 1965 30 million people were without power on the east coast and in Canada. Prior to this year, the last major blackout was in 1996. The worst, at least from a socio-political perspective, occurred on July 13th, 1977, when a lightening strike left 8 million New Yorkers without power. Within a few hours thousands of shops were robbed, vandalised, and set on fire. Damage was in the area of 60 million dollars.
As a result of these blackouts in the US -- and their after-effects -- attempts were made to deal with future problems. Six thousand power stations were subsequently linked together in order to circumvent and compensate for a blackout. The only problem was that a major blackout, especially during the heavy loads of the summer, threatens to cause a domino-effect and handicap the entire system. The likelihood of such a major blackout happening was high given the fact that more than half the power stations are in private hands and, in the interest of turning a handsome profit, upgrades to the system have been held back due to cost-cutting measures.
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full at http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/15747/1.html
and, in the original German at -
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/15745/1.html
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