"The Relay Switch"
By Jose Reyes 9/14/03
Investigators are desperately searching for an explanation so they can begin working on some kind of formula to prevent a catastrophic event like this from happening again. The public is starting to get a little weary with the snail-paced procedures that investigators are taking to resolve this "big mysterious puzzle". After accusing the Ohio Grid of being the culprit, they are changing their tune, again, and looking more at a particular relay station located in Michigan.
This relay station (International Transmission Co.), located in Michigan, reportedly has an old fashion style, mechanical device to monitor the transmission lines. By old fashion, I mean, A Forty Year Old Electromechanical switch as oppose to the recent Digital Switches installed within the last 10 Years. The job of these relay switches is to monitor several transmission lines for current imbalances. When a relay switch is working properly and it detects an unusual and drastic current change, then its suppose to take action by shutting down those particular lines in order to protect itself from a power grid. The Ohio Grid, in this case, did send the unusual current imbalances to the Ann Arbor-based relay station and the relay switch reacted correctly. This action jeopardized the power for the particular grid in question (The FirstEnergy Grid) and power was lost in the Ohio area.
This is what occurred on August 14 and the Ohio Grid was overloaded and shut down. Investigators are reporting that the Michigan Grid's relay switch could have tripped too easily and did not give the Ohio Grid the time to soak up the electricity. When a Grid gets hit with so much energy at once, it will shut down immediately to protect all the equipment in the plant and prevent any major explosions. The overload of electricity hit the Michigan Grid so hard, that it tripped immediately and started a cascade of blackouts that eventually affected 50 Million people. The calibration of the relay switch in the Michigan Grid could have been the problem. Now they are checking all the calibrations of the Grids that were affected by the rolling blackout. Everyone must remember that there was a heat wave circulating throughout all the states that were affected. The system must be examined well for when there are extreme heat conditions, and corrected, so this would not occur again.
(Some Examples)
To Be Continued........
