Poor Planning to Blame for Big Blackout of 2011
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It's been almost 8 months since a big blackout left millions of residents in the dark across the Southwest, hundreds of thousands right here in the Coachella Valley. A report out Tuesday explaining what went wrong on the grid and left millions witho Video by kmir6.com
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COACHELLA VALLEY--Its been almost 8 months since a big blackout left millions of residents in the dark across the Southwest, hundreds of thousands right here in the Coachella Valley. A report out Tuesday explaining what went wrong on the grid and left millions without power.
The report is extensive, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission saying it was a myriad of problems that ended up costing Southern California nearly a hundred million dollars.
It was a sizzling September afternoon when the lights went out. Millions without power from Arizona to San Diego. Here in the valley 145 thousand Imperial Irrigation District customers were left in the sweltering heat with no way to cool down.
Now the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has released an extensive look at causes and recommendations.
"This report highlights the growing need for more coordination of grid operations in the West," FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said in a statement.
The outage was triggered by a worker in Arizona and dominoed across the Southwest, leaving a total of 7 million without power. Since then cities have taken action to make sure they're prepared for this type of disaster.
The document released by the FERC outlines several failures in the system that led to the massive blackout including a failure to update networks, lack of external visibility, failure to recognize system interconnection, and failure to study and coordinate special protections systems.
Officials saying their main objective now is better coordination of grid operations to prevent another wave of power outages.
To view the full report click here.
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