Though a massive power outage on the Eastern Seaboard and in the
Midwest left over 50 million people without electricity for hours
on end last week, safeguards and backup power sources would keep
the Los Angeles area and the university from succumbing to a
similar situation, officials say. The exact causes are not yet
known, but a series of outages rippled throughout the Northeast
Aug. 14; currently federal officials are investigating the string
of failures that led to the biggest blackout in U.S. history. The
investigation has revealed broken alarms and an initial trio of
failed high-voltage lines in Ohio owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy
Corp. But in Los Angeles, electricity companies are not worried
about a repeat on this side of the country. “It’s
highly unlikely it would happen here,” said Gale Harris, a
spokeswoman for the L.A. Department of Water and Power. If a
similar outage occurred locally, the city’s power grid is
structured such that the department could “quickly isolate
its transmission and generating facilities to operate from power
sources within the Los Angeles Basin or from a variety of other
locations in the West,” according to the LADWP. The UCLA
campus has its own independent power structure from the rest of the
city. Even if the West Coast grid should fall victim to a power
outage, UCLA has its own generator that guarantees virtual
self-sufficiency for most of the campus, according to university
officials. Normally, UCLA draws electricity from its own campus
generator and purchases about 15 percent of its power from the DWP.
Having two power sources gives the university leeway in dealing
with power outages, said Jack Powazek, assistant vice chancellor of
facilities management. “In the event the (DWP) plant has a
problem, automatically we can island from the DWP and our plant
goes on its own,” he said. The campus generator, which is
located beside Lot 8, has the capacity to power the entire campus
except during peak hours during the middle of the day, Powazek
said. During peak hours, parts of the campus classified as least
important may be blacked out to ensure power flow to the rest of
UCLA. Powazek declined to name which buildings were classified as
least important. Should the campus plant go down, UCLA has a fleet
of portable generators it can attach to critical buildings to keep
them online, said Doug Grody, senior electrical superintendent for
the university. In the event of a campus blackout, all buildings
are equipped with emergency lights to guide occupants to the exits,
and some especially critical buildings, like the hospital, have
their own power source.
Lights Out When the outage struck during the afternoon of Aug.
14, many in New York immediately feared the worst
““Â another terrorist attack. Public officials were quick
to dispel that fear, but New Yorkers and millions of others
struggled through another chaotic day. By evening, traffic was at a
near standstill as thousands tried to leave Manhattan for their
homes or apartments. Civilians directed traffic at intersections
and people poured onto the sidewalks, bringing dining room chairs
and candles, to eat dinner or play games. Though millions did not
make it home that night, crime stayed low, and New Yorkers once
again earned praise for coming together in a time of crisis. After
the sun set, only moonlight illuminated a darkened Times Square,
usually the brightest spot in the city. The next day, when the
lights came on there, people cheered ““Â as if it were New
Year’s.
With reports from Bridget O’Brien, Bruin Senior Staff,
from New York City.