2002: JEA launches probe into system collapse; engineers will look closely at power grid, tree-cutting process
(Editors note: This story ran in the Florida Times-Union on May 1, 2002.)
Thousands of Northeast Floridians boiled their drinking water as JEA customers recovered yesterday from a 12-hour power failure, and JEA engineers sought to shed light on what caused the grueling breakdown.
The JEA investigation will probe whether the power grid's highly sensitive equipment has been properly installed, maintained and inspected. The JEA also is reviewing its tree-trimming process after a sagging transmission line caused a tree to catch fire and forced the Brandy Branch Generating Station to shut down, delaying restoration of power by several hours.
Any recommendations for preventing a repeat will depend on what engineers determine caused the power failure, and the review of reams of data has just begun, JEA spokesman Bruce Dugan said.
"The data is going to tell us what happened, and until we know what happened there's not anything we can specifically do," Dugan said.
The power failure lasted from about 4 p.m. Monday to 4 a.m. yesterday. Nearly all of JEA's 355,000 customers were affected for varying lengths of time, ranging from roughly 30 minutes to the full 12 hours.
The JEA did not suffer any more service disruptions yesterday.
The city-owned utility advised its water customers who live west and north of the St. Johns River to use bottled water or boil water from the tap when used for drinking, food preparation, and personal hygiene, such as brushing teeth. The JEA issued the same advisory to part of northwest St. Johns County until laboratory testing can determine whether power outages caused problems at water plants. The advisory will run at least through this morning and could continue until tomorrow.
Bottled water was delivered yesterday to all Duval County public schools north and west of the St. Johns River, said John Radcliffe, general director of general services and risk management for the school system. Radcliffe said there are about 85 schools in that area.
Maintenance staff arrived at all Duval County schools early yesterday morning to reset the air conditioning units. Radcliffe said there were no reported problems with the units.
The JEA's woes came in two waves Monday. The first series of problems occurred about 4 p.m. as automated shutdowns stopped power generation at the Northside station and Kennedy station. Meanwhile, two transmission lines shut down east of the Brandy Branch station on the Westside. Dugan said the JEA had not determined which of those shutdowns occurred first, second and third, or what effect they had on each other. In addition to those automated shutdowns, JEA plant operators manually stopped generation at the St. Johns River Power Park on the Northside to prevent the plant from being damaged.
About the same time, a transformer at the Kennedy station caught fire. Dugan said the JEA's preliminary investigation is leaning toward the fire being "more a symptom than a cause" of the failures that swept through the system.
The second stage of problems came when the JEA tried about 6:15 p.m. to restore power to customers using electricity from the Brandy Branch plant, which had not been knocked out. The transmission lines from Brandy Branch sagged because of the voltage running through them and caused a tree to catch fire. That fire caused Brandy Branch to shut down.
Dugan said the JEA would review its tree-trimming practice to find out why there was not more space between the transmission lines and the tree. The JEA had restored power to half its customers before the tree fire caused that service to plummet to less than 20 percent of JEA customers.
Dugan said the JEA might hire an outside consultant to review what went wrong.
In addition, the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council, which consists of utility companies including the JEA, plans to send a team to work with the JEA's investigation.
"The main reason is to find out if there are any lessons to be learned," said Ken Wiley, president of the council, which seeks to ensure reliable bulk power in Florida. The council does not have any enforcement power, but it can make recommendations to the state Public Service Commission.
Wiley said that based on his talks yesterday with the JEA and the preliminary information, the failure "appears as if one thing led to another. . . . I think it would be highly improbable for that series of events to happen again."
Wiley said the JEA blackout did not pose a threat to the rest of the state's electric grid.
Dugan said the power failure did not cause much monetary damage to the JEA's equipment.
Times-Union staff writers Binyamin Appelbaum and Laura Diamond contributed to this report.
Staff writer David Bauerlein can be reached at (904) 359-4581 or via e-mail at dbauerlein@jacksonville.com.
A Connection to the Blackout
The JEA shutdown caused some problems in neighboring utilities:
Jacksonville Beach Electric Department: Serves Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach and Ponte Vedra Beach -- experienced a power loss for about two-thirds of its 31,000 customers about 4 p.m. Jacksonville Beach Electric Department Director Gary Quick said the north end of the city's system is connected to JEA's power grid, so the JEA's problems spread to Jacksonville Beach, causing outages for up to 27 minutes before operators sealed off the connection.
Clay Electric Co-op: More than 19,000 customers in the Orange Park area lost power for two minutes about 4:25 p.m. Monday, and the same customers again lost power at 6:23 p.m. for 11 minutes. Clay Electric does not get electricity from JEA, but there are system tie-ins that tripped a breaker.
Florida Public Utilities Co.: Florida Public Utilities Co. buys its electricity from JEA, so the company's customers on Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach went through a blackout along with JEA's customers.
Water Boil Order in Effect
Duval County and JEA customers in Clay County are under a boil order. JEA officials will determine today when the order will be lifted. Customers in Neptune and Jacksonville Beaches are exempt. For more information, call (904) 630-3272.
What It Means
Tap water is safe for washing and bathing but not for drinking.
Water for drinking, oral hygiene, food preparation and ice should be boiled for at least five minutes.
Customers who cannot boil water can sterilize it by adding three to four drops of household bleach to a gallon of tap water, shaking, and letting it stand for at least 30 minutes.
Ingredients of a Power Failure
The JEA is investigating the massive power failure that struck about 4 p.m. Monday. The utility is trying to determine the sequence of events that knocked out electricity, but so far has reached no conclusion.
Brandy Branch
The Brandy Branch Generating Station shut down about 6:15 p.m. Monday because transmission lines from it caught a tree on fire.
Kennedy Generating Station
An automated system shut down the Kennedy Generating Station about the same time Northside station went down. A transformer at Kennedy also caught fire.
St. Johns River Power Park
Plant operators manually shut down the St. Johns River Power Park after the Northside and Kennedy stations stopped generation.
Northside Generating Station
An automated system shut down the Northside Generating Station about the same time the Brandy Branch Generating Station transmission lines tripped.
Power line failure
Two transmission lines east of the Brandy Branch Generating Station shut down when circuit breakers tripped.
Source: JEA
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JEA looks at ways to prevent future power failures in Jacksonville
