Author: Clare Duffy, ESBI, Ireland
Analysis of system power outages can help us learn and avoiding similar events in the future. If you have information on any blackouts, please e-mail to editor@pacw.org.
14 August, 2008, Ohio, USA
Exactly five years after the largest blackout in North America, a lightning strike caused the lights to go out again in several Cleveland suburbs. A transmission line tripped when the span of wire fell to the ground and the fault was cleared by the protective systems.
18 August, 2008, Namibia
Widespread power outages were experienced in the northern parts of Namibia. The blackouts were caused by the blow-up of a current transformer on the Omburu-Gerus line at the Omburu substation.
21 August, 2008, Trinidad and Tobago
A blackout caused by the failure of a string of insulators in the Gasparillo substation left parts of San Fernando without electricity for more than two hours. The insulators caused transformers feeding parts of San Fernando to shut down.
1 September, 2008, Venezuela
The third massive power blackout this year hit 50 percent of the Venezuelan territory, temporarily disabling basic services such as the subway, and creating new concerns about the status of the electric power supply in the country. The power outage was triggered by a problem in a provincial transmission line, but it is not clear why this resulted in a blackout.
5 September, 2008, Velachery, India
Several localities in Velachery were without power on Friday night. The outages were attributed to breaker failure in the Velachery substation and fallings of avenue trees on Taramani Link Road.
12 October, 2008, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
A massive power outage that affected 200,000 customers on Thanksgiving began with the tripping of a transmission line followed by cascading tripping all the power lines south of Ladysmith. It is not clear what caused the cascading effect.
19 October, 2008, Venezuela
A blackout which began at 10:38 AM left most of Venezuela without power, including in the capital, Caracas and several central and western states. It was caused by an unexplained fault in the 800 kV Guri-Malena transmission line which distributes power from the Guri hydro-electric plant in eastern Venezuela and carries 70 per cent of the power consumed in the country.
