Trinidad Blackout (16 Feb 2022)

[VexXx Dogg]

Pug. Let me attempt to give you the layman explanation.

Generators all share load. If one generator shuts down, the electrical load is then taken by the other generators. If the load is not dropped off quickly, the generators cannot supply the load and then the system frequency begins to drop below 60Hz. At some low frequency the generators will trip to prevent damage to the machine. Once this happens, there is a cascading effect causing all to trip.

Think of it this way... You and three partners moving a steel beam. You feel tired and let go... Your three partners have to take your strain. Then a next man can't take it anymore, so he lets go. Then the other two cannot hold on to the weights so they just let go and the beam comes crashing. That's the easiest analogy I can use to explain why this happens.

These things happen in seconds sometimes milliseconds. So the overall trips happen so quickly... That's to prevent damage to machines. Better to face this we have now rather than having a machine damaged and the country's demand cannot be met.

the obvious question is then why if one supplier has a problem does it end up requiring all other suppliers to be taken off.

supposed there was a supplier in north, would a similar situation arise where south issues require north plant shutdown as well?

thnx for this analogy

[Cooper]

From Cnc3 Facebook page

[pugboy]

so countries with many sources of power eg europe with many many wind farms all over the place, they suffer these same issues ?

[The_Honourable]

Restored to the rest of San Fernando, Vistabella and St Joseph Village.

[redmanjp]

still no power arima side

but digi net wukking

[ProtonPowder]

restored at 10:56 by me

[zoom rader]

so countries with many sources of power eg europe with many many wind farms all over the place, they suffer these same issues ?

No Pug

Power generation is different.

In this case, the Penal plant took down the rest of the plants. All plants are on the grid. When a plant does down, the other plants try to pump out the Megawatts to make up for the loss. In this case, the load was too demanding and thus a trip to protect the generators. load demand was too high and not enough redundancy to make up for it. All this happens in the blink of an eye.

This happens from time to time and its not new. Its a balancing act. Power demand controllers are use but even those fail.

Within each plant there are a number of generators and all those that are put online need to maintain the same frequency. You can't have frequency not matching, it will be a trip if out of phase.

[Mmoney607]

I hear mere hours before the outage occurred, a generator was delivered to a house in phillipine

[Firewall]

Root cause was a loss of gas pressure at the Penal plant that took down the other plants.

Wasn’t Penal

[Chimera]

Back on in Central..10 mins after I refill the generator lol

[Mmoney607]

What's the chances of other outages in the next few hours?

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Power just came back in Chaguanas

[88sins]

E-W corridor still out

Maybe now these nimrods the people voted for will take stock and make it more attractive and affordable for people to want and install alternative power generation and storage capabilities to run their homes.

It would save the state so much money in subsidies in the long run.

[redmanjp]

Power came back in Arima about 15 mins ago. Guess we are one of the last to come back on.

[gastly369]

What's the chances of other outages in the next few hours?

Idk but I have no fuel for generator till morning so pain if goes again(came back 5 mins ago for me) ... Was running power for home since lunchtime

Tmrw going stock back up fuel first ting

[Chimera]

Power came back in Arima about 15 mins ago. Guess we are one of the last to come back on.

curepe, aranguez and malick still dont have

[Rovin]

Power just came back in Chaguanas

by me actually at 11.04pm ...

[redmanjp]

Just noticed a slight dip. The lights dimmed very slightly for a second or so. Hope that don't mean anything.

[Toyopet]

An important point to note is that electricity isn't produced and stored like say water. Electricity required is generated at that instant.

So as you explained, when one producer goes down and the demand remains the same, the other plants pick up that slack and that could put serious strain on the infrastructure.

Practical Engineering on YouTube posted an excellent video breaking down the 2003 US blackout.

so countries with many sources of power eg europe with many many wind farms all over the place, they suffer these same issues ?

No Pug

Power generation is different.

In this case, the Penal plant took down the rest of the plants. All plants are on the grid. When a plant does down, the other plants try to pump out the Megawatts to make up for the loss. In this case, the load was too demanding and thus a trip to protect the generators. load demand was too high and not enough redundancy to make up for it. All this happens in the blink of an eye.

This happens from time to time and its not new. Its a balancing act. Power demand controllers are use but even those fail.

Within each plant there are a number of generators and all those that are put online need to maintain the same frequency. You can't have frequency not matching, it will be a trip if out of phase.

[hover11]

An important point to note is that electricity isn't produced and stored like say water. Electricity required is generated at that instant.

So as you explained, when one producer goes down and the demand remains the same, the other plants pick up that slack and that could put serious strain on the infrastructure.

Practical Engineering on YouTube posted an excellent video breaking down the 2003 US blackout.

so countries with many sources of power eg europe with many many wind farms all over the place, they suffer these same issues ?

No Pug

Power generation is different.

In this case, the Penal plant took down the rest of the plants. All plants are on the grid. When a plant does down, the other plants try to pump out the Megawatts to make up for the loss. In this case, the load was too demanding and thus a trip to protect the generators. load demand was too high and not enough redundancy to make up for it. All this happens in the blink of an eye.

This happens from time to time and its not new. Its a balancing act. Power demand controllers are use but even those fail.

Within each plant there are a number of generators and all those that are put online need to maintain the same frequency. You can't have frequency not matching, it will be a trip if out of phase.

So basically there is nothing stopping this from happening again?

[abducted]

So basically there is nothing stopping this from happening again?

Vaccinate to generate,

[Daley Special]

Back up in Barataria 15mins ago.

[brickman]

Back up fully in belmont 15 minutes ago.

[supercharged turbo]

Up in Couva 11:57pm

[K74T]

Back up in Chaguaramas at 12:30

[K74T]

Just got some legit intel............ situation at TTEC Ghandi village substation which dropped the frequency resulting in all plants going down....

Legit indeed!

[rexsmith]

San Juan now back up

[shake d livin wake d dead]

[2WNBoost]

Anyone planning to migrate to California should be prepared for events like this

[sMASH]

An important point to note is that electricity isn't produced and stored like say water. Electricity required is generated at that instant.

So as you explained, when one producer goes down and the demand remains the same, the other plants pick up that slack and that could put serious strain on the infrastructure.

Practical Engineering on YouTube posted an excellent video breaking down the 2003 US blackout.

so countries with many sources of power eg europe with many many wind farms all over the place, they suffer these same issues ?

No Pug

Power generation is different.

In this case, the Penal plant took down the rest of the plants. All plants are on the grid. When a plant does down, the other plants try to pump out the Megawatts to make up for the loss. In this case, the load was too demanding and thus a trip to protect the generators. load demand was too high and not enough redundancy to make up for it. All this happens in the blink of an eye.

This happens from time to time and its not new. Its a balancing act. Power demand controllers are use but even those fail.

Within each plant there are a number of generators and all those that are put online need to maintain the same frequency. You can't have frequency not matching, it will be a trip if out of phase.

So basically there is nothing stopping this from happening again?

but why the plants trip out? should it not just be the bus couplers, disconnecting the plants from the grid?

for instance: the sensors detect variable frequency, then trips open the couplers to the grid.

the only way the plants should trip out is if the couplers could not de couple in time, so the next safety measure is to trip off of the generators..

if the couplers cant disconnect in time, then it seems they have some more problems, that not being addressed. sooo, is; once every ting good, every ting good, and once tings get hay wire, they will trip off.


annnd what cause the delays to resume output?
me, i feel the couplers did bun out, thus causing the generators to fail safe, and when time to restart, they had to replace the couplers first.