From what I read, this wasn't a "small localized disturbance". Apparently, a fire underneath one of the main towers on the CA-OR border was the cause of the problem. Now that may not sound like too much, but
the lines were carrying at least 3000Mw of electricity, enough "to power 3-1/2 Seattles for a day" (quote from local newspaper). My guess is that when there is a problem involving that much power with no place to go, the safety systems shut everything down to prevent damage. Zach Babayco zachb@netcom.com <----- finger for PGP public key http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/4127 On Sun, 11 Aug 1996, Lucky Green wrote:
At 18:15 8/11/96, Dave Farber wrote:
The avalanche behavior of power systems is still not well understood and techniques to prevent such failures are not obvious. Same can be said of telephone and computer networks at different levels.
Does somebody here have a pointer to literature on this topic? A system in which small localized disturbances can amplify, propagate through the system, leading to catastrophic failure is the worst of all possible designs. I fail to understand why a system as important as the power grid would display this type of behavior. Why is the grid negatively dampened?