{"id":7463,"date":"2014-02-23T22:00:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-23T21:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/blog\/?p=1290"},"modified":"2023-06-21T10:18:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T10:18:32","slug":"greatest-power-cuts-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/blog\/greatest-power-cuts-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Power Cuts in History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since the invention of electricity there have been some <strong>power cuts<\/strong> around the world which may be called \u2018<strong>historic<\/strong>\u2019 and others which have had a significant <strong>impact on the economy and the daily lives<\/strong> of the people affected even though their consequences had a smaller dimension.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2104\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2104\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2104 \" alt=\"The city of New York during the power cut of 2003 (Wikimedia Commons).\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/greatest-power-cuts-history.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" title=\"\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2104\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of New York during the power cut of 2003 (Wikimedia Commons).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>Causes of Disruptions to the Power Supply<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Equipment in poor condition.<\/li>\n<li>Network overload.<\/li>\n<li>Short circuits.<\/li>\n<li>Meteorological phenomena: earthquakes, hurricanes, heat waves or extremely cold spells, tidal waves, floods, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Human error.<\/li>\n<li>Intentional: for example, the world lights-off events for 5 minutes in 2007 and 2009 in protest of climate change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2105\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2105\" style=\"width: 464px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2105 lazyload\" alt=\"Image of Great Britain covered by snow in 2010 (NASA).\" data-src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1_greatest-power-cuts-history.jpg\" width=\"464\" height=\"600\" title=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 464px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 464\/600;\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2105\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of Great Britain covered by snow in 2010 (NASA).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>Impact of a Disruption to Power Supply<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Many basic services are affected by a power cut with multiple consequences:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The supply of drinking water to buildings, as the pumps need electricity to operate.<\/li>\n<li>Chaos on the roads as traffic lights and signals do not work.<\/li>\n<li>The operation of lifts and escalators.<\/li>\n<li>Some public transport, such as electric trains.<\/li>\n<li>Economic losses for businesses, shopping centres, restaurants and hotels (the fridges do not work).<\/li>\n<li>Production in the industrial sector is severely affected.<\/li>\n<li>Technological and computer equipment cannot be used, implying an economic loss for companies.<\/li>\n<li>The general population suffers the consequences of not being able to use heating, air conditioning or any electrical appliance.<\/li>\n<li>Looting and violence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2106 lazyload\" alt=\"blackout-3\" data-src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/2_greatest-power-cuts-history.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"357\" title=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/357;\"><\/h3>\n<h3><strong>Some \u2018Historic\u2019 Power Cuts <\/strong><\/h3>\n<h3>The Northwest of the United States, 1965 (14 hours)<\/h3>\n<p>On 9<sup>th<\/sup> November the electricity network uniting the coast between the United States and Canada collapsed and the backup systems failed. The power cut <strong>affected 30 million people<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Argentina, 1976 (7 days)<\/h3>\n<p>The Ledesma power cut on 20<sup>th<\/sup> July was deliberately provoked by the military in order to detain people who opposed the regime.<\/p>\n<h3>New York, 1977 (25 hours)<\/h3>\n<p>An electrical storm destroyed a transformer. <strong>10 million people were affected<\/strong>. A study by Congress estimated that the cost of the damage reached <strong>300 million dollars<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2107\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2107\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2107 lazyload\" alt=\"The city of Santiago (Chile) before and during the power cut of 2010 (Wikimedia Commons).\" data-src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/3_greatest-power-cuts-history.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"234\" title=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/234;\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2107\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Santiago (Chile) before and during the power cut of 2010 (Wikimedia Commons).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Canada, 1989 (9 hours)<\/h3>\n<p>A solar storm caused a power cut which affected <strong>six million people<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>New Zealand, 1998 (<strong>66 days<\/strong>)<\/h3>\n<p>The underground electrical cables were in poor condition and collapsed.<\/p>\n<h3>United States, 2003 (up to 24 hours)<\/h3>\n<p>An overload on the network caused 100 electrical power plants to close. <strong>50 million people were affected<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Italy, 2003<\/h3>\n<p>Almost the entire country, some <strong>57 million people<\/strong>, was affected due to faults on the energy transmission lines from Switzerland and France caused by heavy storms.<\/p>\n<h3>Indonesia, 2005<\/h3>\n<p><strong>100 million people <\/strong>experienced the disruption to the power supply when a transmission line in Java failed.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2108\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2108\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2108 lazyload\" alt=\"The city of Toronto (Canada) in the dark during the power cut of 2003 (Wikimedia Commons).\" data-src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/4_greatest-power-cuts-history.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" title=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/400;\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2108\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Toronto (Canada) in the dark during the power cut of 2003 (Wikimedia Commons).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Western Europe, 2006 (30 minutes)<\/h3>\n<p>For half an hour<strong> ten million people<\/strong> in France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Austria suffered the consequences of a failure in a German electricity company.<\/p>\n<h3>Colombia, 2007 (hours)<\/h3>\n<p><strong>25 million people <\/strong>were without power for several hours due to a substation failure.<\/p>\n<h3>Barcelona (Spain), 2007 (<strong>almost 3 days<\/strong>)<\/h3>\n<p>A fire in a substation affected the power supply to 283,000 people.<\/p>\n<h3>Brazil and Paraguay, 2009 (7 hours)<\/h3>\n<p>A power cut affected <strong>87 million people<\/strong>. The cause was a fault produced by an electrical storm in the Represa hydroelectric power plant in Itaipu.<\/p>\n<h3>China, 2008 (10 days)<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Four million people <\/strong>experienced the consequences of a power cut produced by heavy storms.<\/p>\n<h3>Chile, 2010 (up to 2 weeks)<\/h3>\n<p>On 27<sup>th<\/sup> February 2010 a strong earthquake left 80% of the population (some <strong>13 million people<\/strong>) without electricity.<\/p>\n<h3>India, 2012 (2 days)<\/h3>\n<p>On 31<sup>st<\/sup> July India suffered one of the worst power cuts in history: <strong>760 million people<\/strong> were affected.<\/p>\n<h3>Argentina, 2013-2014 (days)<\/h3>\n<p>An intense heat wave caused the massive use of air conditioners, which generated prolonged outages during the Christmas and New Year period.<\/p>\n<p><strong>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 <\/strong>in hospitals and in situations in which light is vital, such as rescues, during which emergency lighting towers are used.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2118\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2118 lazyload\" alt=\"Three Inmesol emergency generators in the Swedish Civil Protection facilities. Emergency protocols are managed from here in the event of a catastrophe.\" data-src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/5_greatest-power-cuts-history.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" title=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/400;\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Three Inmesol emergency generators in the Swedish Civil Protection facilities. Emergency protocols are managed from here in the event of a catastrophe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Photos:<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Before the Power Cut<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">URL: <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ASantiago_sur_segundos_antes_del_apagon.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ASantiago_sur_segundos_antes_del_apagon.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\" data-mce-mark=\"1\">Source:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>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<\/p>\n<p><strong>After the Power Cut:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ASantiago_sur_a_oscuras.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ASantiago_sur_a_oscuras.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Source:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New York 2003<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Photo taken in <a title=\"w:New York City\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_York_City\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">w:New York City<\/a> during the <a title=\"w:2003 North America blackout\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2003_North_America_blackout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">w:2003 North America blackout<\/a>. Photographer: <a title=\"w:User:Glitch010101\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/User:Glitch010101\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">w:User:Glitch010101<\/a> Originally from http:\/\/www.glitchnyc.com\/photos\/photo.php?apa_album_ID=52&amp;apa_photo_ID=1385&amp;apa_page=1 {{cc-by-sa-2.0}}<\/p>\n<p><strong>United Kingdom Covered in Snow <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>URL: http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AGreat_Britain_Snowy.jpg<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Source: <\/span><\/p>\n<p>By NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Toronto<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>URL:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AToronto_ON_2003_Blackout.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AToronto_ON_2003_Blackout.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source:<\/p>\n<p>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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since the invention of electricity there have been some power cuts around the world which may be called \u2018historic\u2019 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,41],"tags":[],"categorias-smart-power-":[],"paises-":[],"class_list":["post-7463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ingles","category-science-and-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7463"},{"taxonomy":"categorias-smart-power-","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categorias-smart-power-?post=7463"},{"taxonomy":"paises-","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paises-?post=7463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}