BLACKOUT -- BUT NO STARS!
-----------------------
2003 August 16
John Pazmino
NYSkies
john.pazmino@moondog.com
2003 August 16
Introduction
----------
I, along with some 50 million other souls, was caught in the
multistate electric power outage on Thursday 14 August 2003. While my
own experience was pretty tame, with no great agony or perils, I did
make some curious observations of the sky.
Power collapse
------------
I was at work near Herald Square when the lights snapped out at
16:10 EDST. They, with all other electric apparatus, just shut off
instantly. There was no dimming, slowing, flickering. Just a quick
poof! from full power to none.
The office was then illuminated by daylight from windows and
emergency lights operating from batteries on drop relays. All phones
were out of service because the new digital system we got is powered
from the wall mains, altho the voice signals run thru the LAN.
It took only a couple minutes to verify that this blackout was a
major one covering at least all of New York City. After a few more
minutes, by battery radios and calls via dedicated emergency phones,
we learned that several states were in the dark (altho it was still
daylight). We secured the office and let everyone out for the day.
Some did leave; other lingered, including me.
Walk around the 'hood
-------------------
By 17h it was obvious that the power would be out for some time to
come. Such a large area of outage will not be restored at once. I left
for the day and took in the scene around my office. I made a spiral
traverse around the 'hood reaching east to Norman Thomas High School,
west to Penn Station. To the north and south I skirted but didn't
enter, Times and Madison Squares.
As part of the response to emergencies, I packed my CD whistle and
flashlight. If you're wondering what good these are for a computer
compact disc, 'CD' means 'Civil Defense', a civilian corps exercised
to handle some police and rescue functions in times of war. This was
long ago disbanded with the end of the Cold War, but I kept my kit,
including the armband. No, I didn't try wearing that; people probably
now wouldn't understand it.
The streets were rapidly filling up with walkers, so many that
they spilled into the curb vehicular lanes of the wider streets. The
hordes were neatly divided into two grand flocks. One was a milling
crowd at bus stops. These folk were seeking either their normal bus or
trying for a bus as alternative to electric rail or transit.
The other flock was streams or rivers walking swiftly and
purposefully in both directions on every street. They continued in
torrents all during my circuit.
All traffic signals were extinguished; store signs were dark;
subways and rails were turned off. Despite the sudden loss of signals
in the streets, cars seemed to procede with care, taking turns at the
corners. Police were set up at the major corners and at some other
there were civilians stepping into the traffic to guide it. For the
most part, there was no gridlock or excessive horn-blowing.
Buses to City Hall
----------------
By 18h I turned homeward. The air was cooler than most previous
days, with a light moist breeze. I didn't sweat up from the walking.
I will not bore you with the details of the buses I ended up
taking, but to merely note that I got a bus from the mid 30s to
Greenwich Village, where it ended its run. The ride was no more
comfortable or not for any normal rush hour. The AC was quite welcome
and everyone on board was in a cheery mode. The ride was slow, stop
and go, with no long dwells. I got to Greenwich Village in about a
half hour.
In the Village I fished for a continuing bus, which came along in
a few minutes, and rode it to City Hall. I got a seat! Good thing,
because this trip took a full hour! Along the way the Sun sank into
horizon haze and twilight was creeping in when I got off.
Crossing Brooklyn Bridge
----------------------
From City Hall I walked over Brooklyn Bridge with a gazillion
other people converging on the entry ramps from all directions. By now
traffic into Manhattan was shut off, leaving the inbound vehicular
lanes open to the flood of walkers. I wanted to walk on the footpath
but was vectored by barriers and police to the inbound car lanes. The
crowd moved briskly, at a pace that would leave most foreigners in the
dust. Twilight was closing in rapidly with sunlight stifled behind
the thick haze layer over the City.
I never had to use the whistle, like for help if I got injured or
saw an accident. The flashlight was essential in the falling light. It
was truly a survival item! It looks like a cheap flashlight, but the
bulb and reflector are set to throw a solid beam of light with a
'paenumbra' of much wider cone angle around it. Flashlights typicly
emit a wretched blob or ring of light of almost no use to see your way
in the dark. My lamp was perfect to read signs and warn of
irregularities in the roaddeck.
River of light
------------
The approach road from City Hall to the Manhattan tower passes
over the FDR Drive, a highway hugging the east flank of Manhattan
island. It was at first hidden behind waterfront buildings as I began
my trek. Then, wham!, I was whacked from the left by this dazzling
light!
It was the highway, packed with cars like in the usual rushhour.
The headlights, seen from some 25 meters above them, were amazingly
brilliant! Their brilliance was enhanced by the black surrounds. Under
the Bridge the FDR Drive enters an interchange. The river of light,
looking so much like fresh volcano lava, split into three prongs, like
that lava flowing over hilly ground!
I saw this before many times under quite adverse circumstances.
The view I had until now was from Manhattan Bridge, from my train on
the way home. I see the road thru a crazed window, dulled by interior
lights of the train, with bridge girders flitting past, and only a
moment of perfect alignment. Now I was standing at the crash wall
looking between the girders in clear air and all that. The effect was,
uh, illuminating.
There is now a new to-do item. Go back to Brooklyn Bridge in the
fall, when darkness comes earlier, and photograph this river of light
as an example of automobile-induced luminous graffiti. I could also do
the same from the newish footpath on Manhattan Bridge.
Continuing on the Bridge
----------------------
Enough of that. I marched on. The entire mood was rather festive
with impromptu convos igniting along the way to compare previous
blackouts, World Trade Center, and other major calamities. It was
weird to relate the 1965 blackout to the younger folk, who likely were
born after the Apollo flights ended! On the other hand, it was
fascinating to hear of power cuts from other places as told by
visitors or newcomers to the City.
About a hundred meters farther onto the Bridge I stopped at the
crash wall to gaze at the East River in the uptown direction. My view
downtown was blocked by the bridge structure and outbound vehicular
traffic. Yes, all of the City in view was dark, except for isolated
individual lamps here and there, perhaps a dozen at the most. The
gross lighting came from the FDR Drive and cars on Manhattan Bridge,
the next one uptown on East River. Now the headlights were flickering
or winking or blinking as they were interrupted by trees, poles,
fences, structure.
Sky over East River
-----------------
By now it was getting to full night. I looked up at the night sky.
No stars.
Now it was a summer day with a thick deck of haze over all the
sky. And the Sun set into this blanket earlier this evening. At first,
then, I wasn't surprised to find no stars. But! The sky was NOT inky
black. Not even plain very black.
It was filled with a luminous graffiti all over. The Manhattan
Bridge and city skyline were outlined against it. Overall the sky was
a blue-gray tint, reminding me of a very dark solar eclipse sky. There
was actually enough light from the sky, by now my eyes were getting
dark adapted, to walk about confidently!
What's more, the texture on the masonry towers of the Bridge and
the lacework of its cables were plainly discernible. You do know the
Brooklyn Bridge is a masonry structure, yes? There is NO steel
internal framework faced with stone decoration. The whole effing
towers are stone block placed atop stone block, like mediaeval
castles.
Where was this stuff coming from? There seemed to be no hotspots;
the Moon hadn't risen yet. Two days later I learned that New Jersey
was only partially blacked out. Yet, now even accounting for that, and
I didn't see any light dome over Jersey, the sky was still pucky
bright.
Into Brooklyn
-----------
I continued walking, stopping every hundred meters or so to
inspect the scene and sky. I deliberately made some flow counts, too.
The rate of pedestrians in the car lanes, not including the footpath,
ranged from 50 to 150 per minute. The mean was 100 to 120 per minute.
People tended to form clumps with sizable gaps between them.
At the landfall we were greeted by Brooklyn police welcoming us to
their happy habitat. We cheered them, shook their hands, waved
flashlights at them. My own trek took about an hour, with all the
stops along the way. The road turned southward toward Boro Hall, where
I split off to get buses home.
Buses to home
-----------
It took about a half hour in stygian darkness to find my proper
bus stop. The flashlight was vital for reading signs and picking out
obstructions in the street. Two packed buses passed by without
stopping, so I fixed to take other routes that connect to one reaching
my house.
I hopped onto one, loosely filled, no seats, but with good AC. The
driver called out the stops being that you couldn't recognize anything
out the windows and there were many foreign riders.
This bus connected with a second one that went to my nabe. This
one offered me a seat! While waiting for this bus, I scanned the sky.
Same eerie bluish luminance. Now I could make out Vega and Mars. A
hotspot creeped up in the east; the Moon by now rose. Mars came and
went at the threshold of my sight. This was likely due to denser and
rarer parts of the haze drifting over him.
The combined ride on these buses was about an hour and a half,
taking in heavy traffic near Boro Hall and the wait between buses. From
the second bus, I walked in familiar streets to my house. On my block,
now about 22:30 EDST, I saw the same bright sky, only Vega and Mars.
The Moon was dulled by haze with her markings fully discernible.
At home
-----
There was nothing doing at home. Father and sister were listening
to battery radios. Sister set out candles here and there. I showered
and went to sleep. If the trains were running in the morning, Friday,
I go to work, If not, I stay home. As luck had it, there was no
transit on Friday. My block still had no electric yet, altho
restoration in other parts of the City was proceding steadily.
There was never a threat to the water supply. New York water is
pure mountain rain water reaching the City by gravity and siphon. It
needs very little sanitary treatment. My house and other places in the
low-elevation parts of the City never lost pressure. Those on high
ground and high rise towers have internal pumping. This was dead from
the lack of electric and such places then had only what water happened
to be stored in their internal tanks.
Friday was drier and clearer than Thursday. The sky was actually
blue, The Sun was a blazing disc. I passed most of the day reading in
daylight on the stoop. Lighting thru the windows within the house was
too erratic. By late afternoon, the Sun waned substantially into a
yellow-white disc, remaining that way thru a geometric sunset. We took
supper in twilight, while there was still natural light to work in the
kitchen.
Bingo!, at 19:25 EDST on Friday 15 August 2003, the electric
turned on. I cautioned against resuming a full electric use for the
rest of the night. Leave a couple lamps on for area lighting and turn
on one television.
The sky that night was more or less a normal summer sky. By
nightfall probably all of Brooklyn regained the electric and the sky
was illuminated more or less normally. I guess the real better clarity
of the air, compared to the dismally hazy nights so far this summer,
and the fact that many businesses closed from Thursday hadn't reopened
yet, the transparency was a better than normal. Not much, 3rd
magnitude versus 2nd or 2-1/2. At least the Moon was farther east and
didn't interfere so much.
For sure, there was NOT the spectacularly star-filled sky of the
nights following World Trade Center or the 1977 ConEd blackout.
Work on Saturday
--------------
On Saturday the 16th of August 2003 I awoke in early morning with
no plans for the day. I wasn't even sure if transit was running yet.
It takes six or more hours after power is turned on to let trains
operate again. At about 09:30 my boss called me at home. I figured he
was home in Connecticut, which suffered the blackout in its western
half. No, he was at the office! He came in to prepare for a business
trip he planned to get ready for on Friday. He was leaving on Monday
so he had to get some work done. But! The LAN and telephones were out
of service. He was working with the head office, talking thru his
cellphone, to get it started. The task got too technically involved
for him.
He noted that the subways were running; he saw them from Grand
Central. I then offered, if the trains were in service in Brooklyn, to
come to the office and fix the LAN.
I freshened up and scooted to my subway station; trains were
running on a weekend schedule. The ride to work was pleasant with nice
AC, roomy coach, and thinned crowd of riders.
Cranking up the LAN was a tricky technical process I'll leave out
here. It took an hour with help from my head office. Boss and I stayed
at work for the rest of the day.
Because so many of my friends know me from the old Federal Power
Commission and my work with the 1977 blackout investigation, I'm
getting inundated with questions about this present episode. First
off, my office's scope is now confined to hydroelectric power, which
is, in the northeast, characterized by small facilities clipped onto a
nearby mid-voltage transmission line. Once the electric gets to that
line, we lose control of it.
However, we still have many of the electrical maps and diagrams
for utilities. Since our office always covered only the northeast, we
treated Quebec, Canada, the Midwest as 'blackboxes', even representing
the humongous James Bay project of Quebec as a small dot on the maps.
Yet there was enough for me to examine on Saturday at work after
getting the phones and LAN humming.
Deregulation
----------
A massive complication is my review of the power system was the
recent deregulation of the industry. The most visible aspect was the
segregation of the generation function from the transmission and
retail function. Consolidated Edison Company of New York, for example,
no longer runs its power plants. They were sold off or retired thruout
the 1990s. Keyspan Energy, never an electric power company, now owns
the Ravenswood station in Long Island City. This was the pride and joy
of Con Edison, home of the largest generating machine in the world
when built in the early 1960s.
Con Edison now buys electric from the new owners of the power
plants and then only retails it to the customers. Its bills show the
separate charges for its purchase of electric and its own [minor]
distribution. What many customers miss is that only the distribution
part remains under state regulation. The purchase part is a free-
market deal.
Right away the convolution of the restoration process is evident.
Con Edison, sticking with the New York example, has to work with
perhaps ten other separate firms at its former plants, in the stead of
sending its own crews with its own orders to them. There must surely
have been a stretch out of the power restoration from such multiparty
negotiations.
Lakes power flow
--------------
By way of background, the elephant-in-the-bedroom of the North
American power system is Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. They forced the
power grid to grow around them and carry a circulating current. The
two loops, around each lake, meet at the Niagara Falls complex, where
Lake Erie empties into Lake Ontario thru Niagara Falls. The normal
flow around each lake is counterclockwise; west to east on the
American side, east to west on the Quebec and Canada side. There are
exceptions, like the north-to-south flow from the James Bay project to
the United States. All the utiltiy names I mention below are legacy
names. Name changes and mergers may well have altered them since ny
office worked with these firms.
Because in history the power companies grew up independently of
each other, with joint construction becoming routine in the late 20th
century, the strength of the transmission grid varies widely around
the lakes. In New York state are Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation and
New York Power Authority. The latter operates the Niagara Falls
project, in coordination with a similar one, Beck, on the Canada side
of the falls. Both systems operate extensive 345 kilovolt power lines,
which together move power across most of the state.
Con Edison, serving most of New York City and much of Westchester
county, is not part of the lakes circulation. It does conduct power
between New Jersey and Pennsylvania to its west and New England to its
east.
In Pennsylvania are Pennsylvania Electric Company and West Penn
Power Company, both working 230 and 500 kilovolt transmission lines.
The Ohio lakefront has Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company,
Toledo Edison Company, and Ohio Edison Company. They work 345 kilovolt
lines. The southern part of the state, served by Ohio Power Company
and Columbus & Southern Ohio Edison Company, has several lines working
at 765 kilovolts, the highest AC voltage in the country. They were
built in the 1960s and 1970s.
Farther west was always beyond my office territory, so I have
little knowledge of the power grid there.
Since the 1970s there was only minor expansion of the transmission
network on the American side of Lakes Ontario and Erie. This slowdown
in growth results from many factors. Among them are the fiscal crisis
of the 1970s in the industry, the high rate of interest for
construction bonds in the early 1980s, a moderated growth in power
demand thruout the 1980s, and increasing public involvement in power
facility siting in the 1990s.
What happened?
------------
The instant cause of the power cut is as at nightfall on August
16th still a matter of speculation. None of the electric utility
representatives offered a competent postulate during news interviews
and commentary. The only preliminary notion is that the initial
interruption occurred near Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, and percolated
east and west to disrupt the lakes current. This idea could well be
replaced by others in the weeks to come.
At least in New York State, the power grid was deliberately shut
down to prevent propagation of surges or dips into it. There was, as
far as is known now, no collateral incidents within the state to
compound the collapse. Con Edison, for one, reported no physical
damage to its properties. A report of a fire at its East River
station (now used for street steam production) was withdrawn.
Witnesses mistook a smokestack plume during the wind down of the plant
for that issuing from a fire.
What kinds of accident could happen? There are two main ones: loss
of generation or of transmission. The typical loss of generation is a
machine at a power station that breaks down and stops producing
electric. Loss of transmission usually is the cut off of a particular
power line from a drop or rise in voltage or phase. Either loss can
impose a sudden imbalance of electric flow, which could then result in
over or under current elsewhere on the grid.
Power companies routinely postulate such accidents and do
simulations of their effects. Responses include shutting off certain
customers, buying emergency power from neighboring sources, isolating
the trouble spot (by opening circuit breakers around it), increasing
generation at other stations, reducing voltage on the grid, increasing
power load on other lines. The proactive anticipation of accidents is
a normal part of the cotidian work of the electric power industry.
Why such an accident, in this instance, led within seconds or even
cycles to the crash of the entire lakes circulation is for me entirely
unfathomable as at now. So far there is just too scanty information to
work with.
Conclusion
--------
This was the third major blackout I experienced. The others were
in 1965 and 1977, both engulfing the City or more. In all three cases
I went thru some nuisance and inconvenience but never was in danager
or felt vulnerable.
The key to riding out a blackout is to set aside any need or want
of electric service and to acclimate to the surrounding situation. For
one thing, it it no longer required to 'get home' as quickly as
possible, the exception being if there is a household member that
absolutely needs attention by a clock schedule.
In 1965 and 1977 there was no remote communication on the move
with others but by coin-op telephone. By the 2003 incident, cellphones
were coming into wide use as prices and size of units were on the
downward slide. In 1965 and 1977 we had chemophoto cameras and limited
number of shots in them. 2003 saw the beginning of digital cameras, as
yet bulky and clumsy to operate.
Oh, what about stars on Saturday, the 16th? No stars on Saturday
night. The sky was all clouded over.