[22166] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: POWER: San Mateo/San Francisco power outage report
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jay R. Ashworth)
Wed Dec 9 19:35:16 1998
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 18:56:07 -0500
From: "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra@scfn.thpl.lib.fl.us>
To: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <m0znkE8-0004IPC@maya.whs.verio.net>; from Jon Zeeff <jzeeff@verio.net> on Wed, Dec 09, 1998 at 09:04:27AM -0500
On Wed, Dec 09, 1998 at 09:04:27AM -0500, Jon Zeeff wrote:
> > grid primary power sources. Aside from the human error, the system worked
> > "as designed to protect the rest of the grid."
>
> I suggest that causing a cascade effect and increasing the area of an
> outage isn't a good way to design a system.
I suggest that you don't understand power distribution and transmission
very well. Just like any other generator, if you load a power station
too heavily, the voltage and the frequency will both be pulled down.
Since the tolerances on public electricity are something like +-5v and
+- .5 Hz., they really have no choice but to break ties when a plant or
segment goes out. They really shouldn't cross-tie power on a running
basis as much as they probably do... but since the Green folks won't
always let them build plants...
Cheers,
-- jr 'Damn I'm glad I don't run a power company...' a
--
Jay R. Ashworth jra@baylink.com
Member of the Technical Staff Buy copies of The New Hackers Dictionary.
The Suncoast Freenet Give them to all your friends.
Tampa Bay, Florida http://www.ccil.org/jargon/ +1 813 790 7592
