NYC power outage

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romex jockey said:
Perhaps by proxy of the New York Public Service Commission's collection of discontent....?
I'd be hanging ABB out to twist in the wind ..... were I ConEd.....~RJ~
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If the fault resides with the numerical relay manufacturer, as it appears to be the case with Astoria and guessing here also, then said entity certainly should be outed in front on the commissioners. I mean why should Con Ed take the blame for what is not really their fault? They have no idea they are buying someone else's a scandal.
 
Maybe ConEd is waiting for that confrontation to air the real culprit MBrooke ? ..... maybe they've a new subcontractor lined up ? ~RJ~
 
romex jockey said:
Maybe ConEd is waiting for that confrontation to air the real culprit MBrooke ? ..... maybe they've a new subcontractor lined up ? ~RJ~
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Hope so. I mean they made a promise:


https://www.coned.com/en/about-us/me...rom-con-edison



Over the next several days and weeks, our engineers and planners will carefully examine the data and equipment performance relating to this event, and will share our findings with regulators and the public. We applaud the work of all emergency responders and our employees who helped restore power swiftly and keep the public safe. We also commend the patience and understanding of all New Yorkers who remained calm and poised during this incident.
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But honestly, I have a feeling.


They know they have defective relaying out on their system due to a certain manufacturer. Its obvious. But they count on people 1) forgetting about the incident 2) Journalists and the public not asking specific questions from not having power system knowledge.

And they think it will work out well. That all problems have been remedied and said players were honest. That is until the next latent flaw pops ups...
 
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romex jockey said:
Maybe ConEd is waiting for that confrontation to air the real culprit MBrooke ? ..... maybe they've a new subcontractor lined up ? ~RJ~
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Hopefully the video will be uploaded soon:


https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/Me...-A682-4B33-BAB8-42252C933F2E&Options=&Search=


Media synopsis:


https://www.crainsnewyork.com/politics/con-ed-defense-pols-ponder-public-takeover



Cawley reiterated that the power failure in July was caused by flawed relay equipment, which has since been addressed.
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I'm not sure why the wall of silence.
 
This is interesting, in light of all the pols lamenting a public utility may be best>>>

Con Ed has invested more than $1 billion yearly in improving its system, he added, and delivers power to its Westchester County and city territories eight-times more reliably than national averages.
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So somewhere,someone keeps score?

Would that be the PSB (public service board)'s job?

~RJ~
 
romex jockey said:
This is interesting, in light of all the pols lamenting a public utility may be best>>>



So somewhere,someone keeps score?

Would that be the PSB (public service board)'s job?

~RJ~
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Con Ed is among the best, no matter what. If they weren't sold defective protective relaying we wouldn't be having this conversation.
 
Watching the vid presently... Now they are saying that transformer relaying maloperated at 65th st but somehow the 13kv did feeder trip...? So if a trafo protection relay mal operated why didn't the transformer circuit switcher just trip? And how did one transformer relay maloperation result in all 5 transmission supplies tripping? And 3 systems malfunctioned? Last one I can believe.



There is absolutely no information being disclosed that answers any of the original questions. So much was said without actually saying anything.


If you want my opinion it wasn't one or two relays that malfunctioned, but at half dozen or more, at two substations. There is a lot they are hiding. A lot.
 
mbrooke said:
September 3rd, hearing by lawmakers:

https://ny.curbed.com/2019/8/20/20813860/ny-state-lawmakers-hearing-con-ed-blackouts


Hope its recorded. It should be, the last one was for the Astoria event if I'm thinking of the same panel.

Anyone know if the public or press is invited?
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My experience has been that when the legal eagles get involved and politics added in what we get is a public lashing and bemoaning of the poor job done by the Utility. No recognition is made to how well they have done with the restraints placed on them to reduce costs and keep rates as low as possible. Just once I would enjoy some I would like to hear from a political hack the fact that the cost for guaranteed continuity of service would place the cost of service outside the range of acceptable by about 10,000%. Next, if that kind of thinking is applicable to businesses why aren't we holding the body politic to the same standard! By the way mbrooke, excellent reporting. Were you a ConED employee?
 
NewtonLaw said:
My experience has been that when the legal eagles get involved and politics added in what we get is a public lashing and bemoaning of the poor job done by the Utility. No recognition is made to how well they have done with the restraints placed on them to reduce costs and keep rates as low as possible. Just once I would enjoy some I would like to hear from a political hack the fact that the cost for guaranteed continuity of service would place the cost of service outside the range of acceptable by about 10,000%. Next, if that kind of thinking is applicable to businesses why aren't we holding the body politic to the same standard! By the way mbrooke, excellent reporting. Were you a ConED employee?
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Well... Protective relaying aside Con Ed also has an issue with aging assets:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SubstationTechnician/comments/h9d07n

My reply in the other thread:


Electrical arc fault. More precisely a series arc fault taking place on what looks like a 69,000 or 138,000 volt disconnect switch inside an electrical substation. High resistance at the contacts of the switch can cause this, where electricity is literally forced to travel through the air in order to complete the circuit.

If left to continue (system operators don't open the breakers around said arcing) the intense heat will melt through metal conductors or cause the porcelain insulators underneath to give way. Either of which will result in a violent short circuit which will (hopefully) trigger protective relaying to open breakers de-energizing it. If breakers fail to open, the arcing from the resulting short circuit will light up the sky for miles like it did at Astoria Substation in Queens.

Series arcs are tame in comparison limited by the impedance of the load, while arcing taking place phase to phase or phase to ground is limited by the system's short circuit current which is usually obscene- often in excess of 60,000 amps.
The blue/white light comes from the nitrogen in the air (think how neon lights work- the gas insides determines their color) while other colors like red, orange, green ect can be attributed to the metal the electricity is arcing off of.
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Where as- on the other hand- Eversource, JCP&L, PSE&G, National Grid, Central Hudson and the like have all been aggressively replacing aging assets the last 20 years.
 
mbrooke said:
Well... Protective relaying aside Con Ed also has an issue with aging assets:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SubstationTechnician/comments/h9d07n

My reply in the other thread:




Where as- on the other hand- Eversource, JCP&L, PSE&G, National Grid, Central Hudson and the like have all been aggressively replacing aging assets the last 20 years.
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We have experienced a few of these failures caused by the failure of the SF-6 gas leaking from the interrupter bottles of the circuit switcher. The contacts open in the bottle, then the associated air break switch opens (it is a slow operation) which then draws a long sustaining arc. The contacts in the bottle close with the air break portion is fully opened. Similar to this failure:

 
I see- but my understanding is that the disconnects are East 13th st don't have SF6 interrupters. I think this was just a bad contact which I would hope IR scanning would have picked it up.

With that said, this is worthy of a separate thread here:


abc7ny.com

Con Edison asks 116,000 Queens residents not to use air conditioners during heat wave

The energy company reduced voltage by about 8% in the area as a precaution to protect equipment and maintain service as crews make repairs, and officials are asking people in Glendale, Forest Hills, Forest Hills Gardens and Middle Village to conserve energy in the meantime.
abc7ny.com abc7ny.com

abc7ny.com

ConEd asks 80K customers in Bronx to not use AC amid heat wave repairs

Con Edison is asking 80,400 customers in the southeast part of the Bronx to conserve energy -- including not t o use air conditioners -- as crews repair equipment amid the ongoing heat wave.
abc7ny.com abc7ny.com

www.qgazette.com

CON EDISON WORKERS TAKING THE HEAT TO KEEP POWER FLOWING TO CUSTOMERS | Queens Gazette

On Day 4 of 90-Plus Temps, Crews Putting in a Relentless Effort; Company Urges Customers to Conserve Energy, Save Money Con Edison workers are in the sweaty streets of New York City and Westchester Co
www.qgazette.com www.qgazette.com

Not good. Predicted it and it will only get worse.
 
Judging by the outages my best guess is something happened at Rainy causing transmission supplies to East 75th st and West 110th st substation in Manhattan to drop.

Here is a transmission map- blue into Manhattan is 5 radial 138kv (sub)transmission lines, blue into Vernon is two 138kv (sub)transmission lines, Red is 345kv lines (two from Mott Haven in Bronx three from Farragut in Brooklyn) plus Ravenswood generation interconnects:

https://imgur.com/pYoraqK


Approximate Single Line of Rainy:


https://imgur.com/XLCe95r


Looking at Twitter there are reports of arcing before or during the event:

https://imgur.com/QdR0jyO


So, I'm left to ask. What this time?
 
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