Since the invention of electricity there have been some power cuts around the world which may be called ‘historic’ and others which have had a significant impact on the economy and the daily lives of the people affected even though their consequences had a smaller dimension.
Causes of Disruptions to the Power Supply
- Equipment in poor condition.
- Network overload.
- Short circuits.
- Meteorological phenomena: earthquakes, hurricanes, heat waves or extremely cold spells, tidal waves, floods, etc.
- Human error.
- Intentional: for example, the world lights-off events for 5 minutes in 2007 and 2009 in protest of climate change.
Impact of a Disruption to Power Supply
Many basic services are affected by a power cut with multiple consequences:
- The supply of drinking water to buildings, as the pumps need electricity to operate.
- Chaos on the roads as traffic lights and signals do not work.
- The operation of lifts and escalators.
- Some public transport, such as electric trains.
- Economic losses for businesses, shopping centres, restaurants and hotels (the fridges do not work).
- Production in the industrial sector is severely affected.
- Technological and computer equipment cannot be used, implying an economic loss for companies.
- The general population suffers the consequences of not being able to use heating, air conditioning or any electrical appliance.
- Looting and violence.
Some ‘Historic’ Power Cuts
The Northwest of the United States, 1965 (14 hours)
On 9th November the electricity network uniting the coast between the United States and Canada collapsed and the backup systems failed. The power cut affected 30 million people.
Argentina, 1976 (7 days)
The Ledesma power cut on 20th July was deliberately provoked by the military in order to detain people who opposed the regime.
New York, 1977 (25 hours)
An electrical storm destroyed a transformer. 10 million people were affected. A study by Congress estimated that the cost of the damage reached 300 million dollars.
Canada, 1989 (9 hours)
A solar storm caused a power cut which affected six million people.
New Zealand, 1998 (66 days)
The underground electrical cables were in poor condition and collapsed.
United States, 2003 (up to 24 hours)
An overload on the network caused 100 electrical power plants to close. 50 million people were affected.
Italy, 2003
Almost the entire country, some 57 million people, was affected due to faults on the energy transmission lines from Switzerland and France caused by heavy storms.
Indonesia, 2005
100 million people experienced the disruption to the power supply when a transmission line in Java failed.
Western Europe, 2006 (30 minutes)
For half an hour ten million people in France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Austria suffered the consequences of a failure in a German electricity company.
Colombia, 2007 (hours)
25 million people were without power for several hours due to a substation failure.
Barcelona (Spain), 2007 (almost 3 days)
A fire in a substation affected the power supply to 283,000 people.
Brazil and Paraguay, 2009 (7 hours)
A power cut affected 87 million people. The cause was a fault produced by an electrical storm in the Represa hydroelectric power plant in Itaipu.
China, 2008 (10 days)
Four million people experienced the consequences of a power cut produced by heavy storms.
Chile, 2010 (up to 2 weeks)
On 27th February 2010 a strong earthquake left 80% of the population (some 13 million people) without electricity.
India, 2012 (2 days)
On 31st July India suffered one of the worst power cuts in history: 760 million people were affected.
Argentina, 2013-2014 (days)
An intense heat wave caused the massive use of air conditioners, which generated prolonged outages during the Christmas and New Year period.
When there is an outage or failure in the electricity network, reserve generator sets play a fundamental role. Not only do they prevent inconveniences and economic losses as they provide electricity to any facility, but also their usage saves lives in hospitals and in situations in which light is vital, such as rescues, during which emergency lighting towers are used.
Photos:
Before the Power Cut
URL: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASantiago_sur_segundos_antes_del_apagon.jpg
Source:
By Ex-BGDA- (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
After the Power Cut:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASantiago_sur_a_oscuras.jpg
Source:
By Ex-BGDA- (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
New York 2003
Photo taken in w:New York City during the w:2003 North America blackout. Photographer: w:User:Glitch010101 Originally from http://www.glitchnyc.com/photos/photo.php?apa_album_ID=52&apa_photo_ID=1385&apa_page=1 {{cc-by-sa-2.0}}
United Kingdom Covered in Snow
URL: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGreat_Britain_Snowy.jpg
Source:
By NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Toronto
URL: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AToronto_ON_2003_Blackout.jpg
Source:
By Camerafiend at en.wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons