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CNN Live Saturday
FirstEnergy Lines May Have Been Starting Point Of Blackout
Aired August 23, 2003 - 12:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: New research on the power blackout shows the crisis began with one overloaded transmission line outside Cleveland. A study from Cambridge Energy Research analyzed the data from all the affected power companies, but it's not the only analysis of what went wrong.
CNN's John Zarrella has more on that from Cleveland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A week after the big blackout, as power companies review the data, new light's being shed on how the outage may have snowballed, but it remains unclear where the first domino fell.
We do know that about 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, a generator at this East Lake, Ohio, power plant went offline. About an hour later, transmission lines owned by the same company, FirstEnergy, began tripping. Those lines have been pointed to by some energy experts as the possible starting point of the blackout. In the first week after the blackout, First Energy took a beating. The company was already the focus of attention over pollution control issues at one coal fire plant and corrosion problems at its Davis-Bessie Nuclear Plant.
DOROTHEA MATHEWS, UTILITIES ANALYST: They've gone off the utility analyst radar screen and then the national radar screen and that's never a good thing when you're a utility.
ZARRELLA: When those First Energy lines went down, another Ohio utility, American Electric says, its computers sensed problems. 25 minutes before the blackout, American Electric disconnected itself from First Energy. Only 14,000 of its 5 million customers lost power. A Michigan utility wasn't so lucky.
International Transmission Company, ITC, claims that according to its data, at 4:06, just five minutes before the blackout, the power flow between it and first energy suddenly reversed. By 4:09, ITC claims, voltage on the Michigan grid began to collapse under the strain.
(on camera): By then, ITC says, it was too late for them to disconnect from the grid as American Electric had done before the power failed. The data from these companies, if it's accurate, may show how the outage spread, but not necessarily where it began.
(voice-over): At a news briefing, the Midwest Independent Transmission Service Operator, which monitors electric flow in the region, said several transmission lines in other places tripped off before the First Energy lines.
JAMES TORGERSON, MIDWEST ISO: Investigation is nowhere near complete. And we do not know -- we really do not want to muddy the waters by speculating as to what happened and why.
ZARRELLA: First Energy says all of these preliminary reports are just that, speculation. And some energy experts say it may ultimately be not one, but a series of events that caused the lights to go out.
John Zarrella, CNN, Cleveland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Blackout>
Aired August 23, 2003 - 12:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: New research on the power blackout shows the crisis began with one overloaded transmission line outside Cleveland. A study from Cambridge Energy Research analyzed the data from all the affected power companies, but it's not the only analysis of what went wrong.
CNN's John Zarrella has more on that from Cleveland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A week after the big blackout, as power companies review the data, new light's being shed on how the outage may have snowballed, but it remains unclear where the first domino fell.
We do know that about 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, a generator at this East Lake, Ohio, power plant went offline. About an hour later, transmission lines owned by the same company, FirstEnergy, began tripping. Those lines have been pointed to by some energy experts as the possible starting point of the blackout. In the first week after the blackout, First Energy took a beating. The company was already the focus of attention over pollution control issues at one coal fire plant and corrosion problems at its Davis-Bessie Nuclear Plant.
DOROTHEA MATHEWS, UTILITIES ANALYST: They've gone off the utility analyst radar screen and then the national radar screen and that's never a good thing when you're a utility.
ZARRELLA: When those First Energy lines went down, another Ohio utility, American Electric says, its computers sensed problems. 25 minutes before the blackout, American Electric disconnected itself from First Energy. Only 14,000 of its 5 million customers lost power. A Michigan utility wasn't so lucky.
International Transmission Company, ITC, claims that according to its data, at 4:06, just five minutes before the blackout, the power flow between it and first energy suddenly reversed. By 4:09, ITC claims, voltage on the Michigan grid began to collapse under the strain.
(on camera): By then, ITC says, it was too late for them to disconnect from the grid as American Electric had done before the power failed. The data from these companies, if it's accurate, may show how the outage spread, but not necessarily where it began.
(voice-over): At a news briefing, the Midwest Independent Transmission Service Operator, which monitors electric flow in the region, said several transmission lines in other places tripped off before the First Energy lines.
JAMES TORGERSON, MIDWEST ISO: Investigation is nowhere near complete. And we do not know -- we really do not want to muddy the waters by speculating as to what happened and why.
ZARRELLA: First Energy says all of these preliminary reports are just that, speculation. And some energy experts say it may ultimately be not one, but a series of events that caused the lights to go out.
John Zarrella, CNN, Cleveland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Blackout>
