On Thursday, Aug. 14, more than 50 million electricity users, primarily in the northeastern United States and southern Canada, lost power, in what was to become the largest, most expensive blackout in North American history. How vulnerable were manufacturers? Results from Automation World’s online survey show that one in five respondents worked in plants that were affected by the power outage. Of those plants, more than 40 percent were shut down completely for more than a day, 42 percent were shut down for less than a day, and 11 percent were partially shut down. Five percent experienced no downtime, due to backup systems in place.
The majority of the plant outages, 83 percent, resulted in lost production time, while 44 percent of the plants lost product and 28 percent had parts shortages, due to suppliers who were impacted by the blackout. Seventeen percent of the plants experienced safety issues.
Economic costs took their toll on the plants impacted by the blackout. About 32 percent lost more than $100,000 due to the outages; 42 percent suffered losses ranging from $10,000 to $100,000; and, 26 percent of the plants lost less than $10,000.
Manufacturers not prepared
Of most concern, American manufacturers are unprepared for a repeat of the summer’s blackout. Asked whether their company had been, or would be prepared for a blackout, 43 percent of the 117 survey respondents said no, they were not prepared for outages. Forty-six percent said their companies would be somewhat prepared, and only 11 percent said they are fully prepared.
When asked what type of systems their plants have in place to minimize the impact of a blackout, the majority of respondents, 52 percent, said there are no systems in place. Thirty-five percent of the plants have emergency and backup generators, and 10 percent of the plants can shift production to another company facility.
Even more upsetting, are the responses to the question, “Does your plant or company have a plan in place to deal with outages?” Seventy-six percent of respondents said, no, there is not a plan in place. Of the 24 percent of respondents whose companies have plans, these include written procedures, controlled backup and shutdown, emergency generators and reserve capacity and inventory.
Unfortunately, U.S. manufacturers have not learned from recent experience. Should the U.S. have another such blackout, manufacturers may suffer similar losses. Asked, “Did the blackout spur your company to begin developing a plan in case of future outages?” seventy three percent of respondents said no.
Government’s role
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC, www.ferc.gov) is working with the U.S. Dept. of Energy to determine the root causes of the Aug. 14 blackout. A summary of events can be found at http://www.electricity.doe.gov/2003_blackout.htm.
On Sept. 3, 2003, Pat Wood, III, chairman of the FERC, testified before the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the U.S. House of Representatives, “Currently, there is no direct federal authority or responsibility for the reliability of the transmission grid. The Federal Power Act (FPA) [passed in 1935] contains only limited authorities on reliability.” He continued, “Since the electric industry began, reliability has been primarily the responsibility of the customer’s local utility.”
In describing the current system, Wood noted, “The nation’s transmission grid is an extremely complex machine. In its entirety, it includes over 150,000 miles of lines, crossing the boundaries of utilities and states, and connecting to Canada and Mexico. The total national grid delivers power from more than 850,000 megawatts of generation facilities. The grid is operated at about 130 round-the-clock control centers, some large, and others small. The large number of these control centers derives from the historical development of utility-franchised territories.”
In other words, serious questions remain regarding the vulnerability of the North American power grid. Perhaps the only inevitability is this: it will happen again. Make sure your company is prepared.
