IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2017 - 87

grid would be avoided. An operating
procedure spelling out the ravenswood
3 limit was soon drafted and approved.
the restriction would remain in effect
until a number of transmission reinforcements were made to systems west
and south of new York. System planners breathed a sigh of relief.
i thought about all this as i stood on a
stranded new York City transit Authority f train the night of 9 november 1965.
i figured that one of two possibilities
had occurred: either system operators
had ignored the restriction and ravenswood 3 tripped while operating above
625 mW, or an error had been made
in the study and the limit should have
been something lower. Later that night, i
learned that the blackout had nothing to
do with the 625-mW limit. big Allis did
not cause the blackout; in fact, she was
the last generator in the city to shut down.
eventually we all learned that the blackout started in Canada.

At a little after 5:15 p.m., the power
flow on one of those lines reached its
backup setting, and the line automatically tripped. Since the five lines were
essentially in parallel, once the first
tripped, the other four followed rapidly in
cascade, and all five tripped out of service within 2.7 s. their removal from the
grid totally interrupted the only electri-

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Investigating the
1965 Northeast Blackout
the power system of the Canadian province of Ontario was and is an integral
part of the eastern interconnection. the
Ontario system was interconnected with
the U.S. portions of the grid at niagara
falls and the St. Lawrence Seaway. it
was also connected to the state of michigan, but michigan at that time was not
electrically tied to other states. essentially, Ontario's connections to the rest
of the eastern interconnection were at
two points, the buffalo/niagara area of
western new York and the massena area
in the north.
Sometime prior to 9 november 1965,
modifications had been made to the protective relays on five 230-kv transmission
lines that ran from the hydro plants on the
Canadian side of the niagara river toward
the hamilton and toronto metropolitan
areas. given the right circumstances,
these changes could cause the lines to
trip at high levels of power flow. Due to
an oversight, however, Ontario hydro
planning engineers and system operators
were never advised of the changes, and
the inevitable finally happened that fateful evening.

cal path between the generation at niagara
falls and the rest of the Ontario system.
the only electrical path back into Ontario was across new York and up to the
St. Lawrence Seaway, where the other
connection between Ontario and the
eastern interconnection was located.
in accord with Kirchhoff's laws, more
than 1,000 mW surged into the buffalo/

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GE FGK 138
10000

BEFORE

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Util 1
300 MVA
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10/14 MVA
69-13.8
6%
1
Util MVA
300
30X/R
GE

138
FGK
10000

GE VB 13.8-1000

MVA
10/14 .8
69-13
6%
13.8

M M1
500hp

000

GE

VB

13.8-1

Ind 16.7%

SM-20

S&C

ors

HP

kV

13

Type

SynCon
n
Ind
M1-Ge n2
M2-Ge t
M3-Ou g

Mot

M2
500hp
Ind 16.7%

Xlr

RPM

1800

500

13
13
13
13

load
267-2

p
5000h
16.7%
Ind

load
267-2

M

p
5000h
16.7%
Ind

13.8Kv

S&C SM-20

16.7

1800
1800
500
1800
250
400
1800
400

M4-En g2
M5-En

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AFTER

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Util 1
300 MVA
30X/R

GE FGK 138
10000

System Analysis

10/14 MVA
69-13.8
6%

13.8Kv
GE VB 13.8-1000
S&C SM-20

M2

M 500hp

Ind 16.7%

load
267-2

M1

M 500hp

Ind 16.7%

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2017
