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Blackout places Causes

Northeast blackout of 1965 1. Maintenance personnel incorrectly set aprotective relay on one of the

transmission lines between the Niagara

generating station Sir Adam Beck

Station No. 2 in Queenston, Ontario.

The safety relay, which was to trip ifthe current exceeded the capacity of the

transmission line, was set too low. Thepower that was flowing on the tripped

line transferred to the other lines,

causing them to become overloaded

2003 Italy blackout 1. Failure of Lukmanier line followingflash-over between conductor cable and

a tree (line to ground fault withoutcontact of cable and tree);- due to storm

Northeast blackout of 2003 1. voltage instability-did not operate itssystem with appropriate voltage criteria

2. did not recognize or understand thedeteriorating condition of itssystem(did not have additional or back-

up monitoring tools to understand or

visualize the status of their transmissionsystem to facilitate its operators

understanding of transmission system

conditions after the failure of their

primary monitoring/alarming systems.)3. failed to manage adequately tree

growth in its transmission rights-of-way

4. Failure of the interconnected gridsreliability organizations to provide

effective real-time diagnostic support.Source: https://reports.energy.gov/

2009 Brazil and Paraguay blackout 1. Heavy rains and strong winds causedthree transformers on a key high-

voltage transmission line to short

circuit, cutting the line and

automatically causing the complete loss

of 14 GW of power and the shutdownof the Itaipu Dam for the first time in

its 25-year history.

1999 Southern Brazil blackout 1. Brazil was undergoing a severeinvestment crisis during 1999, whichlimited spending on maintenance and

expansion of the power grid. With few

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routes for the power to flow from the

generating stations via the 440kVsystem (a very important system to So

Paulo state, carrying electricity

generated by the Paran river) a lot of

generators automatically shut downbecause they did not have any load. The

world's biggest power plant at the time,Itaipu, tried to support the load that was

no longer being supplied by the 440kV

power plants, but the 750kV AC lines

and the 600kV DC lines that connectedthe plant to the rest of the system could

not take the load and tripped too.

2005 JavaBali blackout 1. The construction of the southtransmission line, planned since 1996,

has been hampered by land acquisitionproblems.

2012 India blackouts 1. a few states(Uttar Pradesh, Punjab &Haryana) did not stick to Power Grid

Corporation of India Guidelines

2. monsoon failure and hydro powergeneration drop

3. Grid has to be upgraded4. equipment failure5. corruption, bureaucracy etc.