European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 23, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Fob Alu their sturdy the big Genera tors and transmission lines drat Supply Power to americas cities Are As delicate in some As hums smoothly from generating Plant la i Teulon to consumer when All goes Bui id something upset the Flowa Boll of or sudden fluctuations in Supply or demand Ana the Grid can suffer the electrical equivalent of a Ner Vous breakdown thai was what blocked Oul new experts believe the problem was compounded by human including reluctance to Cut electricity to selected they say the complexity of the under ground High voltage network feeding inc hear of Ameri Cas largest ally also made As did a Lack o knowledge about How automatic protective devices might Nonn 01 u at a nearby Power Plant much As a Homeowner might blow a use by touching a Bare lamp Cord to a water generators elsewhere in the coned system and nearby Utility grids struggled to pickup inc bul it was Loo heavy one official compared it to pushing a piece of Wood into a saw Blade Loo slowing and Over loading the saws motor Una lit blows a finally the surrounding their lines overheated by too much Cut free from the crippled coned network to keep he blackout trom spreading Tol Clr Cus coned and new York went ii could happen anywhere in the and has Many but chances of a disaster elsewhere on the of new Yorks failure Are because other More diversified Supply and less concentrated though the new York investigation has just gotten under Power experts can speculate with some Preci Sion on what went wrong that wednesday night and even what May be needed to keep it from happening they have plenty of the great Northeast blackout of 1965 Canada to new focused attention on Power problems As never since then there have been almost so smaller u a 30 in this year alone before new links Between americas Utility companies have been beefed up Alica providing alternate circuits if one devices Haye been installed to automatically Cut off customers in Case of regional councils Nave been established to make sure wort who work on say Ute Best protective do nol always perform at expected because to much is unknown about toe Basic physics at Bow High voltage interns react when a really spread in an unpredictable other did work As lightning bolls raced across Ceramic insulators from the Power to their Thos Breakers cycled on several causing Home lights to before shutting off permanently because the lines were damaged Only about i per cent of All Light Ning strikes Are powerful enough to break an insulator or cause because of the Between Edt and 8tss coned lost All lines to update new York generators including the Indian Point 3 nuclear Power a total billion Watts of Power slopped Abdul three limes the loss the system was designed to coned june razors Laboured to pick up the As did lines feeding Lulu the City from Long Island and new human me experts then became a cot Edi imports cheap electricity from other utilities to save customers us Casl of running plants in the new York area on expensive lows fur about one4hird of new Yorks billion was imported that coned managed to make up about i billion Watts of the by firing up Idle generators of its Bull was not a con eds reluctance to quickly to selected easing Strain on the system but raising the risk of straining to Supply added imported Power in the Wake of the lightning the Public service co of new Jersey asked coned to reduce coif de lowered its voltage like turning Down a dimmer Knob at Home by s per cent at and experts said lowering total voltage rather than Black ing out selected areas is a controversial practice because its effect May be offset As motors in such things As air Down draw More at Long Island lighting killed an Over loaded line to Brooklyn and at the overloaded line from new Jersey was con own promptly shut Down to keep from burning the blackout was the City was Tell first then this air conditioned slave of technology and compute riled Sel Assurance was stranded with in skyscrapers that have windows that dont buildings where people Uvo and work higher than their legs can carry this Ulz Atlon a fragile in the not and humid night it Tore where it was thinnest in the cites Many is coned has Load shedding Breakers Des pied to Cut Oft circuits automatically if such As loss of a key Power Causa the current flow to deviate a lightly below its Normal 60 cycles per such like Ripples caused by a Stone los cd into a spread trom the source of trouble and carry with them the seeds of cascading coned officials said Ihler Load shedding Breakers did not trip until the final stages of the similar prob lems have been seen several experts to l own nothing else mayor Abraham appealed to clergymen to ride with police through their in the Hope of slaying the hand one looter and a metropolitan disaster which began with an act of it was hoped in a worried be Mill gated by the word of in a City beset with poverty and a City still near the Edge of bankruptcy web 8 fire looters stole new cars they could t afford to and television Sels and toasters they had no place to plug by John t ingot the dire to Emerson once t Einerson not Haye rung cautions Rasta we Aroer Ilasi have to learn live i like it at tit Tain modern life too Oil pm Dured before the the Energy different people suggest seem to agree that the f Energy to haal and a dangerous we Are i feels and you can i the Tatai Jiff  More people Are than Wing age technology than Are trying to o contract Tim technology and it blackout of did not Trie buying and High Rise Irb embargo of 197371 and the gasoline did ill he to or encourage the funding of the Compi Charles it Levof 0 went out on we while groaned and wondered i its Safe to say that Luce groaned wondered a Little More intense Tyx i u it local or Lull blackout As last 1 tried u Center but  get than t was a bad and i said w a Jssie the s9yearolj Luce worked All n thursday was Stu wearing the was indeed a blackout like last t Power failure of 1965 and i people Werlan the r Vodka mayor Abraham company of it Fitzge quate precautions and Era Ressell hours it look to restore full Powers As remained i even though have answers in a a m mayor thai the company Over die Man hostility a0 remind coned of its Ere Wetti Primc serve it Anim Taialii Ai us f it Bat fit an Back in the year after i Magat lne Cau people love to Luck prove customer n Appe Ruig on to Hes even taken the in endows catharsis for the i if we didst have con Page 14 the stars and stripes