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Lessons from the Blackouts: The View from the Control Room

The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965 and the New York City Blackout of 1977 each, in its own way, challenged the electric utility industry to rethink its use of technologies and operating procedures. This section of Perspectives presents the lessons learned in each power failure by power engineers and their employers.

Jack Feinstein was working for Con Edison as the Assistant Chief System Operator on the night of July 13, 1977. Mr. Feinstein and Charlie Durkin discuss their roles as leaders in the control room during the 1977 New York City blackout in their interview with the Blackout History Project.

>Listen: [Real Audio (Part 1)] [Real Audio (Part 2)]
(note: requires Real Audio player)

In "Lessons Learned from the 1977 Blackout: Case Study 1, Sequence of Events" Feinstein discusses the dramatic sequence of events that led to that citywide power failure, and describes the solutions which have been used to avoid the recurrence of a comparable breakdown.

>Read: [pdf]
(note: pdf requires Adobe Acrobat reader)

Mr. Feinstein provides further details, including schematic drawings, of the events in "Learning from Experiences: Case Study 1, 1977 Con Edison Blackout."

>Read: [pdf]
(note: pdf requires Adobe Acrobat reader)

buy his book at amazon.com

Bruce Wollenberg, a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, offers his personal account of what the Blackout of 1965 meant to him and to the development of today's large Energy Management systems in "An Engineer's Perspective on the 1965 Blackout."

>Read: [pdf]
(note: pdf requires Adobe Acrobat reader)

In "A Brief Review of Electric Power Energy Management Systems," Prof. Wollenberg offers a tutorial covering Energy Management Systems.

>Read: [pdf]
(note: pdf requires Adobe Acrobat reader)

blackout@history.gmu.edu
jts{27 June 2000}