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Stuff happens - that was the gist of the 600-page alibi that Con Edison has produced regarding the nine-day blackout that left western Queens in the dark in July. None of the aforementioned stuff, by Con Ed's reckoning, was the fault of anyone, let alone any individual who collects a check from the utility.
Quite to the contrary, Chairman Kevin Burke asserts that, with the exception of failing to detect 100,000 or so juiceless people for days on end (oh, that), the Con Ed team performed magnificently. The problem was just, well, you know, things that came together unexpectedly, like three lemons on a slot machine.
First, Burke said, an underground low-voltage cable of the kind that delivers power to homes caught fire and knocked out two high-voltage feeder cables that supply electricity to the area's grid.
Second, Burke said, a connection between a feeder cable and a transformer failed, a fault that should have tripped a circuit breaker. But that circuit breaker was out of order, even though the headquarters control panel showed it was working just fine. As a result, a backup breaker tripped. And that threw three feeder cables off line, raising to five the number of feeders that were unplugged.
Taking notes?
Third, Burke said, technicians reset a breaker to restore power to one feeder, only to have it go out again immediately. The technicians assumed the feeder was defective. Actually, the breaker was hit by an inrush of current. An inrush is a naturally occurring phenomenon when you turn power on, but, Burke said, this inrush turned out to be larger than anyone had ever seen. Technicians again wrongly concluded that the feeder was broken and kept trying to fix it.
Got it so far?
That stuff, knocking out five feeders, set the stage for the grid to crash under heavy demand for electricity, Burke said. And, really, there was nothing anyone could do about such a weird sequence. His claim is, pardon us, shocking, and needs full investigation by the state Public Service Commission and lawyers hired by City Hall.
The probers must examine the facts - what happened - and then move on to the more important question that Burke left utterly unaddressed: Why? Why did a low-voltage cable catch fire? Why did a feeder cable connection fail? Why was a circuit breaker out of order? Why was a reading on the control panel wrong? Why were technicians bollixed by an inrush?
Burke's answer - because stuff happens - evades responsibility and is simply not good enough.
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