Re: Canada - Land of ice and snow (was RE: California power ... unplugged)
On Sun, Apr 29, 2001 at 08:25:49PM -0700, Sean Donelan wrote:
I recall 3.2 million people losing power, some for over a month, a few years ago in Canada. Canadians were importing and stealing backup generators from the states so fast, Customs Canada still doesn't know how many generators crossed the border.
http://members.aol.com/badice98/icestormDiary/icestormtext.html
Having been caught in an ice storm in Maryland which killed the power for several days, I have to say they suck. Besides, you can't fault Canada for having worse weather then California. Canada does manage to get a lot of things right, the theory I heard from a canadian friend was that they wait for the US to try something out then find out where they screwed it up. But as for datacenters, I have also heard the theory that canadian customs inspects every packet crossing the border, and that one I tend to believe. :P -- Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net> http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras PGP Key ID: 0x138EA177 (67 29 D7 BC E8 18 3E DA B2 46 B3 D8 14 36 FE B6)
Having been caught in an ice storm in Maryland which killed the power for several days, I have to say they suck. Besides, you can't fault Canada for having worse weather then California.
On the contrary, Quebec has much better weather than California, although I will agree that California's tends to be hotter. The 1998 ice storm was a predictable once in a century event, although of course you can't predict when in the century it'll occur. The newer electrical distribution infrastructure wasn't damaged anywhere near as badly as the older stuff (newer was built stronger), but the likelihood of such a storm was low enough that it didn't seem worth hurrying along the upgrades. I'm sure this is a tradeoff with which all system managers can sympathize. -- John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869 johnl@iecc.com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail
[ On , April 30, 2001 at 01:05:04 (-0400), John R. Levine wrote: ]
Subject: Re: Canada - Land of ice and snow (was RE: California power ... unplugged)
The 1998 ice storm was a predictable once in a century event, although of course you can't predict when in the century it'll occur. The newer electrical distribution infrastructure wasn't damaged anywhere near as badly as the older stuff (newer was built stronger), but the likelihood of such a storm was low enough that it didn't seem worth hurrying along the upgrades. I'm sure this is a tradeoff with which all system managers can sympathize.
and of course there are two ways of choosing when to rebuild older and less reliable infrastructure: a) pick a date and get to it; or b) wait for it to fail..... :-) -- Greg A. Woods +1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP <gwoods@acm.org> <woods@robohack.ca> Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>
[ On Monday, April 30, 2001 at 00:35:51 (-0400), Richard A. Steenbergen wrote: ]
Subject: Re: Canada - Land of ice and snow (was RE: California power ... unplugged)
Having been caught in an ice storm in Maryland which killed the power for several days, I have to say they suck. Besides, you can't fault Canada for having worse weather then California.
Canada does manage to get a lot of things right, the theory I heard from a canadian friend was that they wait for the US to try something out then find out where they screwed it up.
The most recent issue of IEEE Canadian Review (spring 2001 #37) contains a very interesting article titled "De-icing EHV Overhead Transmission Lines by Short-circuit Currents". The cover on the photo shows a stunning picture of a successful test at IREQ's (Hydro Québec) out-door high-power laboratory. The only thing that confused me about the paper was the conclusion that the effect could only be used on 315 kV lines but not on 735 kV lines because the process would be too detrimental to network stability and would affect too many industrial customers and might cause exessive tripping in the network. To my estimation any amount of temporary loss would be more acceptable than downed transmission lines that take weeks or months to rebuild. Certainly if customers could be warned of necessity of a de-icing the "damage" could be minimised. There's also an interesting article in that same issue with the title "Electricity Deregulation: Doubts Brought On by the California Debacle" :-) -- Greg A. Woods +1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP <gwoods@acm.org> <woods@robohack.ca> Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>
participants (3)
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johnl＠iecc.com -
Richard A. Steenbergen -
woods＠weird.com