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Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
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Blackout Shines Spotlight on Area’s Ability to Move People in Crisis

Boyd Long, assistant chief of police with the San Diego Police Department, said the widespread blackout Sept. 8 was a “great learning experience” about how to be prepared for a real disaster when not only the power was down but phone lines were crippled and businesses from gas stations to restaurants were closed.

“It brought to light to a lot of people what they could expect from a big disaster,” Long said. “It set in motion for people to make sure they’re prepared for a disaster and it did it with minimal impact.”

The lessons learned about moving people in times of crisis are not easily measured, but Long said drivers at major intersections during the blackout were careful and responsible.

Long said additional officers were called in during the blackout to ensure adequate police protection and step up high visibility patrols to make sure people had access to a police officer. Special event traffic controllers were also brought in to manage the major intersections throughout the city.

Also aiding the situation were traffic signals operating on battery backup equipment. Although it’s unknown how many intersections were operating on battery backup, Kleinjan Deetlefs, vice president of engineering at traffic light provider McCain Inc. in Vista, said his company provides battery backup equipment to various agencies and it was apparent that some signals were operating on battery power where he was driving that evening.

Some Traffic Flowing

Deetlefs said traffic flow is hindered, however, when only some of the intersections are up and running.

“If you have one intersection that isn’t running, it makes the rest null and void from a traffic flow perspective,” he said. “(Downed signals) are supposed to be run like stop signs, but people are ignorant about the rules so it becomes a dangerous situation.”

The unprecedented blackout tested the regional transportation system as signal lights shut down not only throughout San Diego but also affected areas in Imperial County, Arizona, parts of Orange County and northern Baja California, Mexico.

The cause of the power outage, which occurred at 3:38 p.m. in San Diego, is still under investigation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corp. in cooperation with the California ISO and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, according to San Diego Gas & Electric Co. spokeswoman Jennifer Ramp.

What is known is that 23 separate events occurred within the 11 minutes that the first transmission line tripped off and the lights went out, she said.

“This was the first time in the company’s history that it lost power to 100 percent of its customer base,” Ramp said.

The blackout knocked out power to an estimated 7 million people, according to a California ISO spokeswoman.

Power Restored

SDG&E restored power to all areas that were affected by the outage at about 3:25 a.m. on Sept. 9, within 12 hours after it began, Ramp said.

SDG&E concentrated its efforts on conducting a “black start,” which involves tapping an outside transmission network to route power into the company’s system and carefully energize the bulk of the power plants, Ramp said.

“Power was being reintroduced into the system in the safest way so we didn’t overload the system and cause additional outages,” she added.

The National University System Institute for Policy Research, basing its estimates on data culled from the utility and past power outages, said the region suffered an overall loss ranging from $97 million to $118 million.

The figures include about $70 million in lost productivity.

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