JUDY WOODRUFF: And to India, where an area with a population of 700 million, almost one-tenth of the population of the entire world, lost power Tuesday, when three of the country's regional electricity grids failed.
It was by far the largest blackout in human history. And it came as millions of Indians faced summer temperatures well into the 90s.
SUMMARY: Before the major power failures, the Indian government had scaled back plans to spend $1 trillion to rebuild energy infrastructure over the next five years. Author Stephen Cohen and The Peterson Institute's Arvind Subramanian talk to Judy Woodruff about the future challenges for matching supply with demand for energy in India.
Now that power has been restored to 1.4 million San Diego Gas & Electric customers, state and federal regulators are focused on figuring out who's responsible for San Diego's massive blackout and what measures, if any, could have prevented it.
SDG&E says a cascading series of failures caused the collapse of the region's power grid Thursday afternoon. The utility says it was started by a single repair job gone wrong more than a hundred miles away in Arizona. Here's a rundown of four major questions that haven't been fully answered:
What exactly went wrong?
SDG&E, the region's major electricity provider, blames an outage near Yuma, Ariz., for starting the unprecedented collapse of its system. It says that outage stopped power from coming into the county, knocked out the San Onofre nuclear power plant and shut down the entire system.
Arizona Public Service, the utility that operates the power station where the outage happened, has released few details so far. It said an employee was trying to make repairs, a short circuit occurred and the safeguards that typically prevent an outage from spreading didn't work.
"It should not have impacted a single customer and we want to know why that didn't happen," APS spokesman Damon Gross said.
The uncontained surge from the outage cut all power from a high-voltage transmission line connecting Arizona and California, and initiated a chain of events that also cut off the San Onofre plant, which was serving as San Diego's other main source Thursday.
All together, that turned off the lights for millions of people for 12 hours.
Why did the San Onofre plant shut down?
On Thursday, San Onofre was San Diego's main source of electricity. Before the blackout, SDG&E says its customers were using about 4,300 megawatts of power. About 2,200 megawatts came from San Onofre, more than 1,500 megawatts came from the Arizona power line and the rest came from local plants. (One megawatt can power several hundred homes.)
Losing the power line connecting us to Arizona placed more pressure on San Diego in two ways. First, the grid instantly lost about a third of its power supply. Second, the customers normally served by the Arizona power line were transferred to nearby power grids, including San Diego's, which are all interconnected.
It's unclear how the shift happened. Jim Avery, SDG&E's senior vice president of power supply, said it occurred automatically when the Arizona power line went out. The California Independent System Operator, the agency ultimately responsible for operating the power grid, did not return messages seeking an explanation.
Utility watchdog Michael Shames doubts the shift occurred automatically. Shames, executive director of the Utility Consumers' Action Network, said San Diego's grid is operated in real-time by the Independent System Operator and SDG&E. A shift of that magnitude would not have happened without both agencies being involved, he said. Somebody made the decision to accept more customers, he said, but it's still unknown who.
Whether the shift happened automatically or by choice, Avery said it was crucial step in the downfall of San Diego's systems. Adding more customers immediately boosted the amount of power being demanded from San Onofre and overwhelmed the power plant's capabilities.
San Onofre then turned off for the same reason the breaker in your home turns off power when you plug too many appliances into an outlet, Avery said. Before a surge in power damaged San Onofre's equipment, computer sensors turned off the plant, he said. (And turning the power back on takes a lot longer.)
However, the company that operates San Onofre hasn't gone that far. Steve Conroy, spokesman for Southern California Edison, said the plant was operating at full capacity before the Arizona power line was cut and the company is still investigating why the plant turned off.
How could San Diego's entire power grid have collapsed from one short circuit?
Shames said the amount of power available from local power plants is designed to support San Diego's grid, even during peak hours in sweltering heat (like Thursday's). And when the region has lost power from San Onofre in the past, SDG&E said it has still managed to keep most of the lights on or brownout only some areas.
But Avery said SDG&E never anticipated what happened Thursday. The company planned how to maintain power without San Onofre and the Arizona power line, but never for maintaining power in those conditions while also handling more customers from Arizona. (It isn't clear how many additional customers were transferred. SDG&E referred follow-up questions to the Independent System Operator, which didn't return messages.)
"We planned for what we deem to be a credible threat. We do not plan for every contingency," Avery said. "What occurred is greater than we planned for."
Because SDG&E never planned for it, Avery said, the safeguards to prevent a system-wide collapse didn't work. San Diego has three substations where grid managers and utility officials can stop a surge from turning off local power plants, too. They closed none before the blackout. If they had, the whole system wouldn't have failed.
Avery said the new conditions arrived too fast for humans to act and the computer sensors that could have automatically closed the gateways didn't because the scenario had never been planned for.
"The system did exactly as it was designed to do," Avery repeated several times.
Murray Jennex, an associate professor at San Diego State who's worked with utilities for 20 years, said computer sensors should have stopped the outage in Arizona from spreading to San Diego's system.
Shames said if the Independent System Operator transferred the Arizona customers to San Diego without a plan approved by state oversight officials, it would have been illegal.
"Heads are going to roll at [the Independent System Operator] if that's true," Shames said. "What SDG&E is telling you doesn't add up."
So who's ultimately responsible for the blackout?
That's the question several state and federal regulators have set out to answer in the coming weeks. The California Independent System Operator ultimately operates the state's power grid, including San Diego, and has promised to participate with those investigations and release more information about why the blackout happened when it becomes available.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corp. have begun a joint inquiry. So has the Western Electric Coordinating Council, the regional group that manages the western power grid.
An unprecedented power outage led to controlled chaos Thursday throughout San Diego County and surrounding areas as up to 5 million people coped with the sudden loss of electricity, and officials said power would be restored in waves through Saturday.
The outage began at 3:38 p.m. after a 500-kilovolt high-voltage transmission line from Arizona to California failed, triggering a cascade of events that then knocked the San Onofre nuclear power plant offline. Those are the two major power sources for the region.
San Diego Gas & Electric said 1.4 million of its customers in San Diego and Orange counties were affected as well as residents east into Arizona and south into Baja California. The power failure led to school and business closures, suspended water service in some areas, flight cancellations, blacked-out traffic lights, silent radio stations and trapped elevator passengers. Public schools throughout the county and several high-education institutions will be closed Friday.
Power came back on in Orange County and small pockets of San Diego County by late Thursday evening, but utility officials said most customers would have to wait until Friday and possibly Saturday as electricity is restored in a cautious multi-step process. The restoration is expected to occur first in outlying areas of the county as roughly 115 power substations are rebooted one by one. Power returned to parts of Carlsbad, Bonita, Eastlake, Escondido, Mission Valley, National City, Oceanside and Otay Mesa as of 11 p.m. Thursday.
While power remains out, authorities recommended residents stay at home and off the roads, conserve water, turn off air conditioners and resist calling 911 unless there is a serious emergency.
There were no significant reports of crime although several traffic accidents occurred throughout the county. San Diego police put more officers on the street to help direct and monitor traffic, respond to calls and keep an eye out for looters who may want to take advantage of the dark.
Mike Niggli, president and chief operating officer for San Diego Gas & Electric, said he found out about the power failure at the same time as everyone else.
"The lights in the office went out with no warning at all," he said. "I started at SDG&E in 1971 and I have never been in a situation like this."
Niggli added, "We will do anything we can do get the power supply back as soon as possible here in San Diego.”
The cause of the power failure had yet to be determined late Thursday although the Arizona Public Service utility company said the outage occurred after one of its employees performed a procedure on the North Gila-Hassayampa transmission line near Yuma, Arizona. Officials throughout the county said there was no indication that the event was caused by terrorism.
Niggli blamed the outage on "operator error" but said an investigation would be required to determine if there were other contributing factors.
“Essentially we have two connections to the rest of the world — one to the north and one to the east — and both of those connections were severed,” Niggli said. “We actually don’t know what happened to the line. All we know is the line went out.”
The power failure threw a wrench in the everyday life of a modern society that is heavily dependent on electricity. Commerce ground to a halt as gas stations and other businesses closed their doors. Residents familiar with breezy San Diego temperatures scrambled to buy ice and other comforts to cope with a continuing heat wave.
Peggy Gimbel, who had to pry open her garage door to get out of her Carlsbad home, called the break from power “peaceful” as she sat at a nail salon. She said the outage shows the fragility of the region’s energy system.
“It’s a fact of life. We are dependent upon things,” Gimbel said. About dealing with the lack of electricity, she said, “You put on your big girl pants and deal with it.”
For some, the outage’s proximity to the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks caused worry.
“It’s the worst day of the year. ... It’s just freaky that is was so close to 9/11,” said Kim Conway, who was shopping at a San Marcos grocery store. Her cart was filled with beer and alcohol as she and her neighbors prepared for an impromptu block party in the dark.
Transportation in all its forms was hit or miss, depending on if the mode required electricity to operate.
Inbound flights continued at Lindbergh Field but outbound flights were halted. Officials advised passengers to check their flight's status on Friday before heading to the airport.
The Metropolitan Transit Service halted trolleys, which require electricity to run, but pressed every available bus into service. Coaster and Sprinter trains continued to run late Thursday as well as Amtrak.
Heavy traffic was reported throughout the county’s roadways as darkened stoplights slowed traffic amid a mass exodus of drivers headed home once the power went out. Gas stations were mostly closed as they had no power to pump fuel and no means of processing transactions.
California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Pennings said gridlock ensued minutes after the outage and there were several reports of drivers illegally running through intersections.
“People are forgetting that when power is out at an intersection, it is a stop sign,” he said. “We’re having crashes because people are blowing through these intersections as if it’s a green light.”
Hospitals around the county continue to operate with backup generators, and officials at several facilities said patients weren’t in any danger.
The outage also led to roughly 70 elevator rescues as an unknown number of people became stranded across the county. Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said firefighters responded to calls with medical emergencies first and began responding to the rest of those trapped in elevators about 6:45 p.m. Many of the rescues were requested in downtown and University City areas, where there are taller buildings.
Luque cautioned residents to call for help only if there was an emergency.
“Don’t call 911 unnecessarily,” he said. “Legitimate emergency calls can’t get through.”
Another major concern was water. The supply from the San Diego County Water Authority remains stable and safe, but some San Diego city residents may have difficulty accessing water as several pump stations are without power. City officials said some customers could see a significant drop in water pressure and urged residents to conserve.
Not everyone was left in the dark. Several homes, government buildings and businesses, including casinos and The San Diego Union-Tribune, had power thanks to backup generators.
The power failure also left Friday’s opening of businesses and public facilities up in the air as electricity may or may not be restored yet to some areas. The tendency was to preemptively cancel events.
The outage occurred on the final day of a heat wave that sent temperatures eight to 12 degrees above normal. Temperatures shot into the upper 90s and low 100s across inland valleys and foothills, and as high as 114 in the local desert. The weather was even stifling at the coast due to the lack of a sea breeze. By midafternoon, the temperature had hit 89 in Chula Vista and 88 in Encinitas.
The National Weather Service in San Diego said temperatures will be moderate on Friday, rising to the mid-80s and low 90s across inland valleys and foothills, the 80s in local mountains, and the low-to-mid 70s at the coast.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
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