IEEE POWER ENGINEERING SOCIETY PHILADELPHIA CHAPTER Power Engineering/ Industrial Applications, Professional Communications, and Reliability

Seminar Announcement:

Topic: August 14, 2003 Blackout Sequence of Events

Speaker: James K. Robinson, PPL Electric Utilities

Date and Time: Wednesday, October 11, 2006, 6 PM – 7:30 PM

Location: Hill Conference Room

LeBow Building

Drexel University

Corner of 32nd Street and Market Street

Parking: There are two commercial parking lots on Market Street and 31^st Street

Directions: http://www.drexel.edu/em/directions/map_uc.html

Last Minute Changes: Please check the chapter web page:
http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/pes/philadelphia/

Free Registration: ieeeps@ece.drexel.edu

Contact: Dagmar Niebur,
Drexel's Center For Electric Power Engineering,
Voicemail: +1 (215) 895 6749;
Fax: +1 (215) 895 1695
Email: ieeeps@ece.drexel.edu

Presentation Abstract:

Remember all those misleading stories during the evening of August 14, 2003?

“It only took 9 seconds for the system to blackout.” “It was caused by old electric power systems that could not handle the customer demand.” “A voltage collapse is the root cause of the blackout”. “No one knows where it started.” “A massive lightning strike near Niagara Falls in Canada caused it. Canada caused it to spread to NY, Michigan and Ohio.” “It stopped at the Pennsylvania border because that system is better than NY.”

The engineering investigation team found all the above stories to be wrong. Find out the true sequence of events, the causes of why it started, and why power system high speed blackouts occur. Join us at the presentation to hear the real story.

Biography

In the fall of 2003 Jim Robinson completed a special assignment with North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) located in Princeton, New Jersey. Jim served as team leader of the Sequence of Events Team to investigate the August 14, 2003 Blackout. He is currently a member of the NERC Planning Committee. In 2005 Jim served as Vice Chairman on the interim Board of Directors for ReliabilityFirst Corporation.

Jim has over 30 years of experience in the electric power industry. He served for more than a decade as PPL control room Supervisor - System Operations. In his current position as PPL Transmission Asset Manager, he leads a group of over 30 engineers, technicians and support personnel. They are responsible for developing transmission expansion plans, relay protection plans, facility maintenance, and addressing reliability issues related to the transmission system.

Jim is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania, and a long time member of IEEE. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Drexel University and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University. Please welcome Jim to our meeting today.

Contacts:

Chair:

R. Barnett Adler
PECO Energy Distribution	Voicemail: +1 (215) 731-3240
Philadelphia Region	Fax: +1 (215) 731-3194
830 S. Schuylkill Avenue	Email: b.adler@ieee.org
Philadelphia, PA 19146	URL:

Vice-chair:

Dagmar Niebur
ECE Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	Voicemail: +1 (215) 895-6749
Drexel University	Fax: +1 (215) 895-1695
3141 Chestnut Street	Email IEEE business: ieeeps@cbis.ece.drexel.edu Email Other niebur@ece.drexel.edu
Philadelphia, PA, 19104	URL: power.ece.drexel.edu

Officer:

Musoke Henry Sendaula
CoE - ECE Department	Voicemail: +1 (215) 204-7819
Temple University	Fax: +1 (215) 204-5960
1947 N 12^th Street	Email: hsendaul@nimbus.temple.edu
Philadelphia, PA, 19122

Current as of 8/16/06