Northeast blackout of 1965

The blackout in North America in November 1965 began in the early evening of November 9, 1965, was a large break in the electrical power supply in the northeastern United States and parts of Canada. This affected the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Iceland, Vermont, New York, New Jersey and parts of Ontario. About 30 million people in an area of ​​207,000 km ² were up to twelve hours without care.

Cause

Immediate cause was human error. There was also a lack of monitoring of the power grids, the then frequently encountered in this field up to its limits. A few days before maintenance personnel had set the distance relays a high-voltage line at a power plant near the Niagara Falls on a low trigger value. A few days later - it was a cold November afternoon - the power grid was taken to the limit of its capacity in southern Ontario.

At 17:16 Eastern Time clock broke the wrong setting distance relays from below the load limit of the line, creating a main supply line in Ontario failed. Adjacent lines were drain will increase, thereby there correctly set network protection elements also triggered. In this way, the error spread like a domino effect.

Generators no longer available on the network power plants have been reduced by virtue of factory load shedding in the immediate power to take no damage. A reliable load management should have separate individual, faulty AC regions from the rest of the northeastern network by means of load shedding in the power grid in order to limit the error in the spatial extent. This did not happen.

In Buffalo and Niagara Falls, which supplies were from regional power plants receive, but they were now separated from the rest of the northeastern supply network. Within five minutes, the entire northeastern grid was plunged into chaos. The southern states, which were then connected only via a few lines to the north, were not affected. This also affected the region around Fort Erie because there were still running older 25 -hertz generators that could not be connected directly to the 60 -Hertz networks anyway.

Affected radio and television stations

In Fort Erie one was able to receive a TV station from New York who had emergency power.

Most television stations and about half of all radio stations did not have an emergency power supply and failed. In the New York radio station WABC noticed the moderator Dan Ingram that the turntable ran too slow. The device normally used the mains frequency of 60 Hz in order to ensure synchronous operation. Although the voltage was initially normal, causing congestion in the supply network, a decrease in frequency initially at 56 Hz and 51 Hz result, the Turntable running slower than usual, which could be heard clearly. Shortly after the lights were weaker in the studio. The news started at 17:25 Eastern Time clock with the message about the self-immolation of Roger Allen LaPorte at the UN headquarters in protest against the Vietnam War. When the next message to be read out, the power was slowly getting weaker and weaker until complete standstill.

Effects

Some cities, who possessed regional gas power plants, remained still supplied. In New York City it was dark against 17:27 clock, but not all parts of the city affected. Fortunately, the weather was clear and the full moon shone so that some light was present in this way. The night was surprisingly quiet and peaceful. It has been reported only five cases of looting, in contrast to the power outage in New York in 1977, where there was massive looting and arson. The night of November 9 to November 10, 1965 was, surprisingly, to those with the least crime in the history of New York City since the beginning of crime statistics.

The New York Times published a ten-page Emergency Issue and used for the printing presses of the Newark Evening News, who still had electricity.

Restoration of the supply

Many power plants had no auxiliary power or diesel generators, with which they could launch their new machines, we speak in this case of non- black-start capable power plants. Brooklyn was supplied until midnight again, the rest of New York to about 7 clock the next morning. As low was the fact that the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester had its own independent power plant, which continued to run and was able to deliver in the current environment to start the generators. So could gradually the systems are rebooted.

After the power failure, measures have been taken to prevent their recurrence. For example, the Northeast Power Coordinating Council was established to exchange information between providers and coordinate actions. It was found that the voltages and currents in the distribution system were not adequately monitored, which contributed significantly to this power outage. A timely detection of overloads could have prevented worse and prevented a large-scale collapse of the system.

Myths and legends

An urban legend has it that nine months after the power failure, the birth rate in the affected areas, either at greatly increased. This legend was brought into the world by three articles in the New York Times of August 1966, in which local doctors claimed that the birth rate had risen. This legend, however, was refuted in 1970, after an extensive study by the University of North Carolina showed that no significant increase in the birth had occurred.

Even during the power outage, many believed that these were already impact of an incipient nuclear war, or at least sabotage caused by foreign powers. This setting corresponds to the zeitgeist of the 1960s in the United States.

Since the next day was no reason for the blackout seen UFOs were blamed by several authors and commenters. Also, this view can be explained best with the zeitgeist. Even more sightings of UFOs were reported. An initially unexplained lightning near Syracuse in the cloudless night was probably an arc between a power line and a tree.

The blackout of 1965 formed the background story for the film Where were you when the lights went? with Doris Day in the year 1968.