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American Morning
NERC Investigating Massive Power Blackout
Aired August 18, 2003 - 07:03 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is a major test for the nation's transmission grid coming today, as millions of Americans return to work for the first time since the blackout left parts of eight states and two Canadian cities in the dark. The investigation of what caused a massive power failure is focused on transmission lines near Cleveland, Ohio.
John Zarrella is in Cleveland this morning for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These power transmission lines outside Cleveland, Ohio, may hold clues and perhaps answers to why the power went out. Last Thursday afternoon, three lines owned by Ohio's FirstEnergy Corporation and a fourth co-owned line tripped out of service. The problem occurred before the blackout.
The North American Electric Reliability Council says the blackout began when the Ohio lines failed.
The Midwest independent transmission system operator, which monitors the region, says there may be more to it than four Ohio lines. Quote -- "What is unknown is the relationship among the events in the Midwest and what was occurring elsewhere in the Eastern interconnection at that time" -- end quote.
FirstEnergy added that other events were happening simultaneously outside its operating system.
But for now, the focus remains on Ohio and the transmission lines in the Eerie loop.
In a statement, FirstEnergy, a holding company for electric utilities in Cleveland, Toledo and Akron, reported that early Thursday afternoon, a generating unit at this East Lake power plant tripped off. The plant is 20 miles outside Cleveland.
In its release, the company said -- quote -- "FirstEnergy determined that its computerized system for monitoring and controlling its transmission and generation system was operating, but the alarm screen function was not."
FirstEnergy added -- quote -- "Customers experienced no service interruptions resulting from these conditions; therefore, no isolation of FirstEnergy's system was called for."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And now, while there are statements that other things may have been happening simultaneously to the four Ohio lines going down, it remains very unclear what those other events might have been.
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham says it is way too early in the investigation to be drawing any conclusions. And he added that teams of investigators have already been put together and are being put together to begin fanning out across the nation to find out what went wrong -- Bill.
HEMMER: John, quickly here, north of the border in Canada, some major companies have pledged to essentially come back online slowly on a Monday. Any thought given to that possibility in Cleveland today?
ZARRELLA: No. In Cleveland, everything is working fine. The power is back on.
What we understand, Bill, is that people are being urged, though, if you can, take it a little easy with the power consumption, just so we know everything is OK -- Bill.
HEMMER: I wish we did at this point too. John, thanks. We'll talk to the mayor of Cleveland next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
What then can be done to prevent another electrical catastrophe?
Davis Nevius is senior vice president of the North American Electric Reliability Council. That's the industry group that's investigating the blackout.
Sir, good morning to you live in Princeton, New Jersey.
DAVID NEVIUS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NERC: Good morning.
HEMMER: We're going to try and put this in English, because frankly there are a lot of matters here that prior to Friday of last week were essentially unknown to us, or for that matter a lot of our viewers. But lets break it down and let's keep it simple. If it's true that the alarm system in northern Ohio failed to function and alert other power lines and transmission lines down the line in that Lake Erie region, can you say today that the alarm system would work if again the problems arose?
NEVIUS: No, we can't really say that. In fact, as the Midwest independent system operator said and others have said, this is much more complicated than just a few lines in Ohio or the control system at that utility. We are into our investigation now. We're beginning to put together expert teams. We're pouring over tons and tons of data to determine just what the causes of this event were.
HEMMER: What can you tell us about FirstEnergy and their reliability in northern Ohio?
NEVIUS: I don't have any specific data on their reliability, but they're part of an interconnected grid, which works together. So, it's really the reliability of all of the interconnected utilities, the transmission lines, generators and loads that make up reliability, not just a single utility.
HEMMER: All right, the way I understand the way your organization works, you're essentially a baby-sitter function that was set up in the late 1960s after the blackout of 1965. You've worked with the industry to oversee it. Is that correct?
NEVIUS: Yes, we do. We also set reliability standards for the planning and operation of the interconnected grid system.
HEMMER: OK, and what you do, in large part, is voluntary, is that right, working in the mutual industry?
NEVIUS: Yes, it's...
HEMMER: That's your mission statement essentially for your company, is that right?
NEVIUS: That's correct. The standards that we develop are voluntary standards. We expect that utilities and other electricity users and suppliers will follow these standards, but they are voluntary at the moment...
HEMMER: OK, that leads me...
NEVIUS: ... and we have legislation pending in Congress to make it mandatory.
HEMMER: That leads me to my question then, if it's voluntary, if you're working in the mutual interest of the power companies across the country, who's to say that penalties will have been to be paid if, indeed, a culprit is found here ultimately?
NEVIUS: Right now, that authority would rest with the federal government and state governments.
HEMMER: So, you have no power, so to speak, if FirstEnergy ultimately is to blame?
NEVIUS: Not at this point, regardless of the causes or reasons for this outage.
HEMMER: Well, listen, do you anticipate any problems today, be it here or in Canada, when all of the power comes back online?
NEVIUS: Actually, the transmission system is back in service. At about 6:45 last night, the last ties were -- transmission ties were re-closed. They were the ties between Michigan and Ontario.
The only thing that we see this morning is Ontario is asking customers to conserve their use of electricity. New York is going to evaluate whether they need to do the same thing or not, and the reason for this is not all of the generating units that were lost during the outage have been returned to service yet, but they are expected to be back early this week. HEMMER: David Nevius, thank you for your time this morning and answering some of our questions, and, again, we have a number. Appreciate it -- down in Princeton, New Jersey.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired August 18, 2003 - 07:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is a major test for the nation's transmission grid coming today, as millions of Americans return to work for the first time since the blackout left parts of eight states and two Canadian cities in the dark. The investigation of what caused a massive power failure is focused on transmission lines near Cleveland, Ohio.
John Zarrella is in Cleveland this morning for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These power transmission lines outside Cleveland, Ohio, may hold clues and perhaps answers to why the power went out. Last Thursday afternoon, three lines owned by Ohio's FirstEnergy Corporation and a fourth co-owned line tripped out of service. The problem occurred before the blackout.
The North American Electric Reliability Council says the blackout began when the Ohio lines failed.
The Midwest independent transmission system operator, which monitors the region, says there may be more to it than four Ohio lines. Quote -- "What is unknown is the relationship among the events in the Midwest and what was occurring elsewhere in the Eastern interconnection at that time" -- end quote.
FirstEnergy added that other events were happening simultaneously outside its operating system.
But for now, the focus remains on Ohio and the transmission lines in the Eerie loop.
In a statement, FirstEnergy, a holding company for electric utilities in Cleveland, Toledo and Akron, reported that early Thursday afternoon, a generating unit at this East Lake power plant tripped off. The plant is 20 miles outside Cleveland.
In its release, the company said -- quote -- "FirstEnergy determined that its computerized system for monitoring and controlling its transmission and generation system was operating, but the alarm screen function was not."
FirstEnergy added -- quote -- "Customers experienced no service interruptions resulting from these conditions; therefore, no isolation of FirstEnergy's system was called for."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And now, while there are statements that other things may have been happening simultaneously to the four Ohio lines going down, it remains very unclear what those other events might have been.
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham says it is way too early in the investigation to be drawing any conclusions. And he added that teams of investigators have already been put together and are being put together to begin fanning out across the nation to find out what went wrong -- Bill.
HEMMER: John, quickly here, north of the border in Canada, some major companies have pledged to essentially come back online slowly on a Monday. Any thought given to that possibility in Cleveland today?
ZARRELLA: No. In Cleveland, everything is working fine. The power is back on.
What we understand, Bill, is that people are being urged, though, if you can, take it a little easy with the power consumption, just so we know everything is OK -- Bill.
HEMMER: I wish we did at this point too. John, thanks. We'll talk to the mayor of Cleveland next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
What then can be done to prevent another electrical catastrophe?
Davis Nevius is senior vice president of the North American Electric Reliability Council. That's the industry group that's investigating the blackout.
Sir, good morning to you live in Princeton, New Jersey.
DAVID NEVIUS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NERC: Good morning.
HEMMER: We're going to try and put this in English, because frankly there are a lot of matters here that prior to Friday of last week were essentially unknown to us, or for that matter a lot of our viewers. But lets break it down and let's keep it simple. If it's true that the alarm system in northern Ohio failed to function and alert other power lines and transmission lines down the line in that Lake Erie region, can you say today that the alarm system would work if again the problems arose?
NEVIUS: No, we can't really say that. In fact, as the Midwest independent system operator said and others have said, this is much more complicated than just a few lines in Ohio or the control system at that utility. We are into our investigation now. We're beginning to put together expert teams. We're pouring over tons and tons of data to determine just what the causes of this event were.
HEMMER: What can you tell us about FirstEnergy and their reliability in northern Ohio?
NEVIUS: I don't have any specific data on their reliability, but they're part of an interconnected grid, which works together. So, it's really the reliability of all of the interconnected utilities, the transmission lines, generators and loads that make up reliability, not just a single utility.
HEMMER: All right, the way I understand the way your organization works, you're essentially a baby-sitter function that was set up in the late 1960s after the blackout of 1965. You've worked with the industry to oversee it. Is that correct?
NEVIUS: Yes, we do. We also set reliability standards for the planning and operation of the interconnected grid system.
HEMMER: OK, and what you do, in large part, is voluntary, is that right, working in the mutual industry?
NEVIUS: Yes, it's...
HEMMER: That's your mission statement essentially for your company, is that right?
NEVIUS: That's correct. The standards that we develop are voluntary standards. We expect that utilities and other electricity users and suppliers will follow these standards, but they are voluntary at the moment...
HEMMER: OK, that leads me...
NEVIUS: ... and we have legislation pending in Congress to make it mandatory.
HEMMER: That leads me to my question then, if it's voluntary, if you're working in the mutual interest of the power companies across the country, who's to say that penalties will have been to be paid if, indeed, a culprit is found here ultimately?
NEVIUS: Right now, that authority would rest with the federal government and state governments.
HEMMER: So, you have no power, so to speak, if FirstEnergy ultimately is to blame?
NEVIUS: Not at this point, regardless of the causes or reasons for this outage.
HEMMER: Well, listen, do you anticipate any problems today, be it here or in Canada, when all of the power comes back online?
NEVIUS: Actually, the transmission system is back in service. At about 6:45 last night, the last ties were -- transmission ties were re-closed. They were the ties between Michigan and Ontario.
The only thing that we see this morning is Ontario is asking customers to conserve their use of electricity. New York is going to evaluate whether they need to do the same thing or not, and the reason for this is not all of the generating units that were lost during the outage have been returned to service yet, but they are expected to be back early this week. HEMMER: David Nevius, thank you for your time this morning and answering some of our questions, and, again, we have a number. Appreciate it -- down in Princeton, New Jersey.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
