July 13, 2004
Half of Tallahassee sweltered without power in 90 degree-plus heat this afternoon as city utility workers scrambled to bring three generating units back online.
With almost half of the city's 300 traffic lights out because of the massive power failure, car crashes were frequent. Police planned to direct traffic at major intersections during rush hour, but the mayhem began early as people left work early because of the lack of electricity.
Police reminded motorists to treat intersections with non-functioning lights like four-way stops and to be very careful when entering intersections.
The power failure began about 1:30 p.m. with a malfunction in the city's Purdom plant at St. Marks, which just went back online a week earlier. By 2 p.m., the problem had cascaded and the city's two power plants -Purdom and Hopkins - had lost all generating capacity.
At the time, the city's electric utility was runing a load of about 550 megawatts, near its record high of 590 megawatts. By 4 p.m., the city was generating 100 watts of power, using all the city's small gas turbine and emergency peaking units and the 10 megawatt hydroelectric generator on Lake Talquin. In addition, power was being purchased from other sources and brought in on city transmission lines.
Utility customers with power were asked to set their air-conditioning thermostats at 78 degrees, keep their refrigerator and freezer doors closed and to turn off all non-essential appliances.
City officials were hopeful that power could be restored to all customers within two or three hours, but many city customers remained without power almost three hours after the initial failure. Currently, all small gas turbine and emergency peaking units have been started, and are generating 100 megawatts of power. Other power is being brought in on city transmission lines. Work is underway to bring up Generating Units Hopkins1 and 2, and Purdom Unit 8. At approximately 1:30 p.m. this afternoon, the City of Tallahassee experienced a malfunction that by 2 p.m. resulted in generators at the city's two power plants losing all generating capability. This has resulted in widespread power outages with approximately half of the city's 97,000 customers losing power.
The most critical impact is in terms of traffic, as up to 120 traffic lights are inoperable of the nearly 300 traffic lights in the city. Motorists are reminded to treat any intersection without an operating traffic light as a four way stop and to use extreme caution when crossing intersections.
The City's electric utility was running a load of about 550 megawatts when the generators went down. The record high is 590 megawatts. Currently, all small gas turbine and emergency peaking units have been started, and are generating 100 megawatts of power. Other power is being brought in on city transmission lines. Work is underway to bring up Generating Units Hopkins1 and 2, and Purdom Unit 8. At the present time, it is estimated that the majority of service could be restored within the next few hours.
Residents who have lost power are asked to please manually turn off their air conditioning system so that power will not overload during startup operations. Refrigerator and freezer doors should remain closed to help keep food inside cold. Those with electricity are asked to please conserve power usage by raising thermostats to at least 78 degrees or higher and restricting use of electric appliances.
Tallahassee Police officers will be staffing key intersections at peak afternoon drive time as needed. City residents can assist by dialing "911" only in the case of a true emergency and not to report a power outage.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/breaking_news/9145337.htm