Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Ten: Power Stations and Grids 129speed helicopters, a reward of one hundred thousand dollars, three hundredprivate guards, and extensive FBI activity, not one of the perpetrators has beencaught. It is not likely that they will be, given the depth of their local support.Nor is it likely that South Africa will discover who is persistently cutting itstransmission lines from the four-thousand-megawatt Cabora Bassa dam inMozambique (isolating it altogether for two months, then reducing its outputby half and causing power shortages in South Africa), 32 or who blacked outDurban by blowing up a substation, 33 or who cut power lines in the OrangeFree State, 34 or who simultaneously bombed a substation, a power plant in theTransvaal, and another power plant with Soviet limpet mines. 35It is little wonder that an Interior Department expert confirmed that “a relativelysmall group of dedicated, knowledgeable individuals...could bringdown [the power grid supplying] almost any section of the country,” or couldblack out “a widespread network” if more widely coordinated. 36 Such attemptshave already occurred: just before a Presidential inauguration in Portugal, forexample, eighteen coordinated explosions at widely scattered power linesblacked out Oporto and parts of Lisbon and other cities. 37Even without interference, transmission lines fail by themselves. Of thetwelve worst interruptions in U.S. bulk power supply during 1974–79, sixwere caused by failures in transmission, six in distribution, and none in generation.Seven were initiated by bad weather, four by component failures, andone by operator error. 38 Among all reported interruptions during 1970–79,however, three-fourths “have been due to problems related to facilities, maintenance,or operation and coordination.” Only one-fourth were “initiated byweather or other forces external to the utility.” The same is true abroad: the19 December 1978 blackout of France, the 5 February 1979 blackout of Israel,and the 5 August 1981 blackout of most of southern and southwestern Britainwere all caused by cascading transmission failures. 39Whatever the causes, failures are rife. On 5 April 1979, a buildup of dustand salt spray on insulators in Florida caused a two-hundred-forty-thousandvoltspark. With no outlet left for the output of three generating stations, blackoutsstruck the Miami area and much of Fort Lauderdale and West PalmBeach. 40 The Quebec transmission grid averages about three major failures peryear, chiefly in cold spells which (owing to the intensive promotion of electricheating) coincide with peak demand. In the chilly first week of January 1981,both Hydro-Quebec and Ontario Hydro met record peak loads only byimporting power: the former had lost nearly two thousand megawatts throughtransformer failure at the James Bay hydro site, and the latter had lost aboutone and a half thousand megawatts through emergency shutdowns at twonuclear plants and a coal plant. 41