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Firstenergy assigned blackout blame

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   http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030819/NEWS08/108190081

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030819/NEWS08/108190081

FirstEnergy urges inquiry before blackout blame assigned

By GEORGE J. TANBER
BLADE STAFF WRITER

FirstEnergy officials yesterday continued to deny charges that a glitch in the company’s system may have caused the worst blackout in U.S. history.

Saying Thursday’s outage was too widespread to have originated solely in the FirstEnergy system, the company called for further investigation into the blackout before deciding who is responsible.

"Contrary to misinterpretations that identified FirstEnergy as the cause of the widespread outage, it is clear that extensive data needs to be gathered and analyzed in order to determine with any degree of certainty the circumstances that led to the outage," the company said in a statement released yesterday.

"What happened on Thursday afternoon is a very complex situation, far broader than the power line outages we experienced in our system."

The company on Sunday had for the first time disputed criticism stemming from reports that an investigation into the cause of the blackout that stretched from Ohio and Michigan to the northeast coast was focusing on FirstEnergy power-line problems.

Company officials said data showed unusual fluctuations in the Midwestern grid several hours before its lines failed.

FirstEnergy, parent of Toledo Edison, is the country’s fourth largest investor-owned utility with 4.3 million customers in Ohio.

Officials with the North American Electric Reliability Council, an industry group investigating the power outage, said they believe the outages began with the breakdown of three high-voltage lines south of Cleveland but noted it was too early to determine the cause.

Council officials conceded that events on utility systems elsewhere in the power grid could have caused FirstEnergy’s lines to fail, a point FirstEnergy officials underscored in their statement.

"From the preliminary data we are gathering, and based on what others are providing, it is clear that the transmission grid in the eastern interconnection, not just within our system, was experiencing unusual electrical conditions at various times prior to the event.

These included unusual voltage and frequency fluctuations and load swings on the grid," the FirstEnergy statement said.

Meanwhile, in much of northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, there was little indication that the power outage that had impacted hundreds of thousands of utility customers.

"We were back to normal by Saturday," said Timothy Pietryga, a spokesman for Consumers Energy of Jackson, Mich.

About 100,000 Consumers Energy customers in Lenawee, Hillsdale, and Monroe counties lost power Thursday.

Mr. Pietryga said he was not aware of any indication that something was amiss in the grid system before the blackout.

He said his company is expecting to hear from investigators shortly.

"We’re well aware we’ll be providing information," Mr. Pietryga said.

FirstEnergy officials said its northwest Ohio system was running smoothly yesterday.

"I would call it a normal Monday morning," spokesman Todd Schneider said.

"The system integrity was maintained and the voltage and currents are at normal levels. The system is holding together, and we don’t expect any further problems at this point," Mr. Schneider said.

In Cleveland, where normalcy is returning at a much slower pace, the city kept one of its two beaches closed yesterday because of high bacteria counts, spokesman Celeste Glasgow said.

Raw sewage had seeped into the Cuyahoga River and then Lake Erie after a treatment plant lost power during the outage.

Ohio Department of Health officials said the unusually high bacteria levels peaked on Friday and began to subside on Saturday.

The department told Cleveland officials they could open Edgewater and Villa Angela beaches over the weekend, spokesman Kristopher Weiss said, but the city decided only Edgewater was safe to reopen.

"We don’t want people to get ill," Ms. Glasgow said.

Mr. Weiss said the bacteria appeared to be moving eastward from Cleveland and that his department will continue its testing. He said no such problem exists at other northwest Ohio beaches, where bacteria counts have been unusually high this summer because of heavy rainfall.

In Columbus yesterday, Gov. Bob Taft, who was on vacation at a family summer house in Quebec during the blackout, said he was impressed with the effort put forth during the outage and offered continued state support to those impacted.

"I am encouraged by the spirit of cooperation that we have seen since the blackout occurred.

"We will continue to help those who have been hurt and will work with all entities involved to get to the cause of the blackout and determine a solution to prevent it from happening again," Mr. Taft said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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