NYC power outage

[mbrooke]

A "lightly" loaded area Substation for Fox Hills / Willow Brook / Woodrow

 

[mbrooke]

Upper Manhattan networks

 

[mbrooke]

Serious Question here. It says the Times Square network (which did not go down to my knowledge) is fed from West 50th st? :?:? Does this mean West 50th st never went down, or does it mean Times Square network was recently transferred to another substation? I'm confused :blink:

 

[mbrooke]

is this as bad as the '77 outage....?

~RJ~

RJ, you will like this one- 1977 master report:


https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6673953

 

[mbrooke]

Just click on "View Technical Report (14.29 MB)"

 

[ron]

https://www.tdworld.com/outage-mana...e-preliminary-findings-west-side-power-outage

Con Edison Release Preliminary Findings from West Side Power Outage

 

[mbrooke]

https://www.tdworld.com/outage-mana...e-preliminary-findings-west-side-power-outage

Con Edison Release Preliminary Findings from West Side Power Outage

Thanks

I'm going to say that the relaying did not operate correctly at West 49th st either.

 

[mbrooke]

https://www.tdworld.com/outage-mana...e-preliminary-findings-west-side-power-outage

Con Edison Release Preliminary Findings from West Side Power Outage

FWIW, here is how a typical 13.8kv supply substation is configured.

http://engineering.nyu.edu/power/si...ation of Very Large Distribution Networks.pdf


I am near 100% certain the substation in figure 1 is East 63rd st (half of it anyway), and I'd imagine this applies to most other 13.8kv substations.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't directional over current on the 13.8kv transformer breaker and synchronous bus breaker as a last resort backup. I mean there really should be. The loss of a bus section at 63rd would not result in any lost load as the network can handle the loss of two feeders at peak load. It has to be the same for other stations and it would make sense to be that way.

 

[mbrooke]

Here are the networks fed by East 63rd st (ignore the fire two columns on the left), which the next post will confirm the number of feeder cables.

 

[mbrooke]

Hunter, Sutton, Turtle Bay and Roosevelt each have 12 feeders.


7 69kv feeders from Queens Bridge come into East 63rd st. Each 69kv feeder supplies two transformers or 14 in total. 7 supply 13.8kv switchgear in part 1 of East 63rd st while the other 7 supply 13.8kv switchgear in part two of East 63rd st.

A "part" is shown in post 48.

Each 13.8kv main bus section has at least 4 feeder breakers, two feed one network and two feed another network.

A bus fault or feeder breaker failure results only in the clearing of 4 feeders, or two in each network.

The loss of a 69kv feeder results in two transformers de-energizing- or one in each part of the substation.

This again is not problem as the transformer breaker senses the reverse power and opens.

In fact you could loose two 69kv feeds- 4 transformers (two in each part of the station) and not have outages.

46 MVA x 5 = 230 MVA, or 460 MVA for the whole station.

All in all the design is very redundant and over built.

Reason I am using 63rd as an example is because its not far off from most other substations in Manhattan like such as those involved in the blackout.

 

[mbrooke]

To give you an idea, here are the transformers at 63rd st. The colored "tubes" contain the 69kv feeds to the trafo primary.

14 arrows in total.

 

[mbrooke]

Another shot, the tree growing in the middle covers one of them up :lol: Just to prove to you. :thumbsup:


The other grates cover capacitor banks and similar equipment.

 

[mbrooke]

West 65th st involved in the blackout.


10 transformers, two per 138kv cable, 5 per section run in parallel.


Same operating principal.

 

[mbrooke]

Update:


https://abc7ny.com/con-ed-identifies-cause-of-july-13-blackout-in-nyc/5427935/


https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-city-blackout-root-cause-manhattan

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have taken preventive measures by isolating similar relay equipment at other substations,” Con Edison added. “We will analyze and test the equipment before we put it back in service. Our electrical delivery system continues to operate with multiple layers of relay protection.”

I have a feeling Con Ed has a hoard for defective relays. And this somehow involves IEC-61850.

"flawed connection between some of the sensors and protective relays at the substation."

 

[mbrooke]

From the comment section. To be taken with a grain of salt as I don't know the authenticity or truth behind it.


If true I guess they are saying load shedding over reacted?

 

[mbrooke]

Been meaning to post this vid- finally found it.

A transformer (possibly shunt reactor) fire from a while back:


https://vimeo.com/41264991

 

[hbiss]

Bad enough there has to be 100 fireman and trucks doing nothing, what do they need all the police for? :lol:

-Hal

 

[PaulMmn]

Bad enough there has to be 100 fireman and trucks doing nothing, what do they need all the police for? :lol:

-Hal

To control traffic-- especially trying to -park- all of the vehicles the firemen bring!

 

[mbrooke]

While piecing together the incident, I can confirm that from a hardware perspective the system is indeed designed as a second level contingency system.


Each area station has 5 or 10 65MVA transformers with no more then two sharing a 138kv supply feed.

65th St:

 

[mbrooke]

Astor: