By: Soumen Sahu

WHAT IS BLACKOUT?
•A blackout refers to the total loss of power to
an area and is the most severe form of power
outage that can occur.

•Blackouts which result from power stations

tripping are particularly difficult to recover
from quickly. Outages may last from a few
minutes to a few weeks depending on the
nature of the blackout and the configuration of
the electrical network.
 Recent major incidents
• August 2003: North America. 50 million people affected
during two days; New York City loses power

• September 2003: Switzerland-France-Italy. 57 million people

affected during one day; Italy loses power

• Other major incidents in recent years in Europe and Brazil

• July 2012 :Northern and Eastern India ,Largest power

outage in history, Affecting 620 million people during 2
days,9 % of world population and half of Indian population
EXAMPLE OF INCONVENIENCE DUE TO
BLACKOUT
The recent Indian blackout shut
down trains (including Delhi's metro
system), stopped water delivery
systems, trapped miners
underground, shut down air
conditioners during intense
heat, caused as much inconvenience
as you can imagine.
 Classification of blackouts
• Transmission inadequacy: a failure in a
transmission network causes a cascading
overloading of the network (a majority)
• Generation inadequacy: failures of power
plant(s) cause a deficit of generation (GB 2008
disturbance)
• Usually a mixture: an initial network fault
causes a separation of the network into parts
with deficit/excess of generation
 Pre-conditions and Factors for
Blackouts
• Inadequate maintenance
• Aging equipment, prone to failures
• Insufficiently coordinated equipment
maintenance and generation
scheduling
• Weather (high temperatures;
wind, thunderstorm, fog, etc.)
 How does a blackout develop?

Individual power lines fail due to:

• External effects: fires, lightning strikes, tree contacts.

• Thermal effects: an overloaded line will melt --

usually requires several minutes
(protection equipment will shut it down first)

Individual line failure  system fails

POWER PLANT TRIPS OFF LINE
• Lightning Strike, fire, overload
• When that plant disconnects from the grid, the other plants
connected to it have to generate more to meet the demand.
• If they are all near their maximum capacity, then they cannot
handle the extra load. To prevent themselves from overloading
and failing, they will disconnect from the grid as well.
• That only makes the problem worse, and dozens of plants
eventually disconnect. That leaves millions of people without
power.
TRANSMISSION LINE FAILURE
• Lightning/Sagging/overload
• When that transmission line failed, all of its load shifted to
neighboring transmission lines. They then overloaded and
failed, and the overload cascaded through the grid.
• The multiple failures make the problem worse and worse and a
large area ends up in the dark.
 Cascading failure
Initial set of
externally caused faults:
Several lines are disabled

The network is altered – new

power flows and loading

flows in some of the lines exceed the line ratings

Further line shutoffs

New network: new power flows

Cascade !
Cascading events that cause disturbances to propagate
• Sequential tripping due to overloads, power swings,
and voltage fluctuations
• Protection mis-operation & incorrect settings
involved in ~70% of blackout events in North
America
• Inadequate or faulty EMS/SCADA system
• E.g. alarm burst causing 2003 U.S. blackout
more serious
• Insufficient reactive support where and when
required
Inability
The •leading of operators
cause to prevent
of the blackout further propagation
is: Inadequate System
Understanding & lack of situational awareness
 INDIA BLACKOUT 2012 OVERVIEW
• Gap between power demanded and power generated
was 9% in avg.
• Due to late monsoon hydro power plants generated
less.
• Intense heat caused more electricity usage.
• Farmers in Punjab and Haryana used electric pump for
irrigation=>more pressure on grid.
• 400 kV Bina-Gwalior line tripped. As this line fed into
the Agra-Bareilly transmission section, station failed
and power failure cascaded through grid.
• Previously overloaded grid caused cascading more
rapid.
 HOW TO REDUCE BLACKOUT????
To reduce the risks of blackouts we need to improve the
engineering state.

•Monitoring the operation of a system in real-time,to establish safe

operating levels and to identify parts prone to cascade failure.
•Improvising scada/ems (software)
•The economy needs to build better transmission lines and protect
them from chain-reaction outages that can blackout cities one after
another.
•A new technology known as "superconductivity" cable has been
proposed to fix the problem. This nitrogen-cooled transmission
line, now under development, could carry up to 25 times more
electricity than today's standard copper cable can. That means it
could absorb power surges and other assaults.
Application of new modelling techniques:
preventive network splitting

• Exciting collaboration between graph

theorists and power engineers
• Split the network in a controlled manner
before it partitions itself
• New mathematical modelling tools
required to prevent future blackouts
 Proactive model
We can upgrade a network in a number of ways.
Examples:
Upgrade individual lines

Add new lines:

Join/split nodes:
 Smart grid
A smart grid puts information and
communication technology into electricity
generation, delivery, and consumption, making
systems cleaner, safer, and more reliable and
efficient.
U.S. Department of Energy Definition:
A smart grid integrates advanced sensing
technologies, control methods, and integrated
communications into the current electricity grid.
 Grid Modernization
Today’s Tomorrow’s
Electricity … Choices …
Power park
e-
Fuel Cell

Hydroge
Wind n Storage Remot
Farm Industrial e
s DG Loads
Fuel Cell
Rooftop
Photovoltai e- SMES
cs
Smart
Substation
Load as a
resource Combined Heat
and Power
 Smart Grid requirements
Applications supporting
reliability and efficiency
network management
underground  cyber security
power cables  outage management
 remote fault location
increasing grid capacity:
asset utilization,
power flow control

home automation/ load management/

demand response substation and demand response
feeder automation

energy storage
meter data based grid operation with
stationary & mobile local balancing of
outage management distributed
 emergency power distributed resources
generation
 peak power - Microgrids
 Smart Grid Drivers for India

Reduce T&D Manage peak power to

losses, Improve quality reduce outages –
of supply Demand Response

Integrate
Renewable/Distributed
Generation to the Grid
efficiently
 THE END!!!!
SO BE AWARE WHEN WE
USE ELECTRICITY AND
THE WORLD WILL BE A
BETTER AND SAFE
PLACE!!!