Multiple power plant units trip at same time - thousands in the dark over Christmas - but it was on an Indian reservation, so who cares, right?

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(snip below is for "educational / fair use", yada yada)

Blackout hits reservation, 10,000 NTUA customers lose their electricity

Nathan J. Tohtsoni-Staff writer

FRUITLAND - Elizabeth White Horse, 10, of Upper Fruitland had been praying it would snow Christmas. Saturday evening, she got her wish. The only problem was that she had to enjoy the snow in the dark. White Horse and her 8-year-old brother, Joey, were going house-to-house in search of three mantles to light kerosene lanterns for their home because of a blackout Saturday.

"For now, we're using candles and a flashlight and the (wood) stove to keep us warm," she said.

The reason the White Horse children were out in the snow was because electricity was out for the northeast portion of the Navajo Nation. Across the San Juan River on the north side, Farmington, Kirtland and Waterflow were all lit up. But across the reservation line, people spent most of the night in the dark.

The Arizona Public Service Four Corners Power Plant in Fruitland, which supplies electricity to some customers of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, lost power just before the snow began at 5:30 p.m. and shut off power to 10,000 of its customers.

"Apparently, we had two pieces of equipment fail simultaneously that caused the entire plant to shut down," said Craig Nesbit, APS spokesman in Phoenix.

(end snip)


Oh, yes, and there's some Y2K comments in the ar

-- Nom (nom@de.plume), December 26, 1999

Answers

Try this one..... HOTLINK _to_article

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), December 26, 1999.

Thanks for the assist.

-- Nom (nom@de.plume), December 26, 1999.

No problem. You'll get the bill...

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), December 26, 1999.

Font color ="green"> Multiple power plant units trip at same time how about two circuit breakers? Nothing like distorting the facts written in the article to serve your own purposes is there? *snear*.

You also did not post the "rest of the story";

Nesbit said Saturday's incident was not related to Y2K or computer problems, as the buses are not computerized. "But if this had happened a week from now, there's no way we could convince anyone the other way," he said.

If you have to twist things like this to try to convince people it is caused by Y2K, then if you do find something that Y2K causes, no one will believe you.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), December 26, 1999.


Did I say it was Y2K related? No. Did I imply that it was Y2K related? No.

What interested me was a simultaneous failure knocking out multiple generating plants. Wake up and smell the toast burning.............

-- Nom (nom@de.plume), December 26, 1999.



Four Corners is a huge generating station. If they had a plant trip and only 10,000 customers lost power they got pretty darn lucky. Four Corners carries part of the load as far away as Phoenix and LA.

This article only carries part of the news. When the plant tripped the buss which supplies the Navajo reservation didn't switch over to other available power sources. But what was the cause of the trip and did the plant suffer any damage from going through a trip failure?

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), December 26, 1999.


Thanks for the report nom - As to whether I care, it only matters if something happens to someone I know AND care about. There are 6,000,000,000 people in the world. I've only got enough care to spread around for those I care about. The other 5,999,000,000 could drop dead for all I care especially since we're determined to shoot for 10,000,000,000.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), December 26, 1999.

Non -

Both the Barona and Pechanga tribes have a significant presence locally, so if they have troubles, lots of folks in this neck of the woods would care a great deal. Gaming has given them a lot more resources with which to take care of problems, but their infrastructure troubles would be everyone's.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), December 26, 1999.


For the humor impaired, my "so who cares" comment in the title was made with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

-- Nom (nom@de.plume), December 26, 1999.

My Dear, Dear Cherri,

As usual, you shoot fom the hip again. This particular power generation complex, is indeed an old one (with digital updates on it's controls)...

The Four Corners power generation plant was "wired in" by my father back in the late 50's and 60's. I helped to up date some parts of it in the very early 80's.

The newer, more modern plant (San Juan) is a few miles up high way 550 and on the north side of the road. (Four Corners is on the south; the Navaho Resivation) side of the road.

Now as to your disdain about two breakers. Be aware child, there are breakers which do have embedds in their matrix. I do not know your personal level of familuarization with the physical workings and equipment of a power generation station; and there really isn't time any more to try and take you through a calibration of a power plant's control systems.....

But rest assured dear lady...Once over at the San Juan power generation station. I saw a man lift one small control wire off it's terminal( by mistake)...And shut down the whole shebang!!!!!! The exposive boom Of main breakers could be heard traveling from the coal yard, up the conveyors and into the boiler area (building)..It all cumulated with-in about 30 seconds, to the emergency safty valve being opened on the boiler it's self!!! And little one. Once the boiler dumps it's steam...It takes 24 hours to redistill make up water, re-set it all and get the unit back on line! Since there are several thousand breakers on that one site (and dozens and dozens of them having embedds...Wanna bet that they have another breaker or two go out there- and what about the 7,800 other estimated numbers of power generation stations?

If we are lucky..It will be a death by a thousand cuts..Pray it isn't a heart attack!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), December 26, 1999.



Thanks for the clarification Shakey. I'm not a techie either, so always value the ones here that take the time to break it down for the restn of us. Given we're down to days here, and techie must be beyond exhaustion, the cost of the extra time and attention spent by most here is noted.

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 26, 1999.

Breakers with embedded chips in their matrix. Care to tell us which ones Shakey?

-- The Engineer (The Engineer@tech.com), December 27, 1999.

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