◊ This is part of the ‘history’ series of articles ◊
November 9, 1965.
It was reported at the time as the largest blackout in history leaving 30 million people without power for up to 13 hours over a service territory of 207,000 km2.
The human factor
The root cause of the blackout was determined to be an incorrect setting on a protection relay at the Sir Adam Beck #2 generating station on the Niagara River near Queenston Ontario.
The area of impact
The event
In the late afternoon of a cold November day as loads were peaking, a protection relay trip-setting was exceeded and a circuit breaker isolated a transmission line, creating a cascading event throughout the Northeast power grid. The line was supplying heavy loads in Southern Ontario which resulting in an instantaneous power flow transfer to other lines east to New York State, resulting in more overloaded lines and additional overload protection trips. With the lines tripped, the generation at Sir Adam Beck had nowhere to go and was shut down to prevent equipment damage. The ensuing power flow instability resulted in the system breaking up leaving a few electrically-isolated “islands” where generation remained stable, surrounded by major outages in Ontario and eight States.
Here is a CBC television news report by Norman DePoe and Knowlton Nash:
In 1965, the area still had a small, separate 25Hz system that was not converted to 60Hz in the frequency standardization of the 1950s. It is electrically isolated and remained intact during the event.
Pop-culture
The blackout became a pop-culture phenomenon and was dramatized in the 1968 film “Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?“.
The lessons learned
The events of November 9, 1965 revealed many vulnerabilities in the power grid of that time. Some fundamental flaws were exposed, including that some generators were not capable of restarting without the grid being energized (black-start). Post-event analysis by impacted utilities led to internal reviews and procedural changes.
The need for international collaboration became apparent and the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) was formed. Participating member organizations developed comprehensive international reliability standards for interconnected utilities. A system of voluntary reliability standards is put in place in 1968. These NPCC standards for design, maintenance and operation of bulk-electric power systems became mandatory in 2007 in Ontario and other connected jurisdictions.
The 2003 blackout is the only event to exceed the impact of the 1965 event.
Derek
