Getting to the Bottom of the Aug. 14 Blackout: Power quality measurements support claims that a lack of reactive power was at fault for the incident

摘要

Engineers and politicians have been working diligently to discover the cause of the Aug. 14 blackout, which left 50 million people without power in the northeastern United States and Canada. They've pointed fingers at the country's aging transmission system, poor intergrid communications, and the failure of energy deregulation. The simple explanation is that there wasn't enough power available after some power plants and transmission lines tripped offline in Ohio and Michigan. Technically speaking, this is true, but it also raises the question of the type of power involved.