1965 - POWER BLACKOUTS
The Great Northeast Blackout
November 9, 1965
On November 9, 1965 the northeastern region of the United States and Canada was abruptly plunged into blackness. The worst blackout on record came to be known as the 'Big Blackout'. At 5:16 pm, at the height of the evening rush hour, electrical power to one-sixth of the continent's population was suddenly cut off, trapping millions of people on expressways, in elevators and in office buildings. Altogether, thirty million people in eight U.S. states and in the province of Ontario were affected by the disruption. In Ontario the blackout was confined to the eastern portion of the province - from Timmins in the north, across to Cornwall in the east and south toward Sarnia. Windsor, Ottawa and Sudbury were the only eastern centres to escape the blackout. Yet within three hours power was restored to most parts of the province. There was, however, an even more dramatic story, UFOs had been reported in the vicinity of strategic hydro installations at the time of the blackout. The impressive number of credible sightings led many researchers to consider the possible role these craft may have played in the power collapse. The researchers included the late Dr. James E. MacDonald, a physicist at the University of Arizona; former NICAP director Major Donald E. Keyhoe; and astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the current director of the Centre for UFO Studies. Immediately following the breakdown, the U.S. Federal Power Commission and the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission launched a full-scale investigation into the cause. At first, it was reported that the trouble originated with a mechanical breakdown in a high voltage line between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. According to the [Toronto] 'Globe and Mail': The report turned out to be false. Then a sub-station near Syracuse was reported to be the cause of the failure, but repairmen found it in perfect condition. Finally, six days after the blackout, Ontario Hydro engineers traced the trouble to the mammoth Sir Adam Beck No.2 Generating Station at Queenston, Ontariom north of NiagraFalls. It seems that just prior to the blackout, power was flowing from Sir Adam Beck No.2. into Ontario, then across the border via Cornwall into New YorkState. In graphic terms, power was flowing clockwise in a loop around LakeOntario. At 5:16pm, a backup relay on one of the six lines linking Sir Adam Beck to the rest of the province mysteriously tripped the line's circuit breaker, which acts much like a household fuse. In quick succession the cut-off power jumped to the other five lines, causing an overload that tripped the circuit breakers on these lines as well. A veritable tidal wave of electricity - 1.1 million kilowatts - flowed in the opposite direction into New YorkState. Inexplicably, the relays on the New York lines failed to isolate and contain the overload. Within seconds, the entire grid of thirty-one interconnected power utilities of CANUSE (Canada-United States Eastern Grid) had broken down. Although experts could pinpoint the origin of the blackout, they were baffled by the cause of the relay malfunction and the failure of the protective systems to contain the overload. In the words of Ontario Hydro's system supervising engineer, Jim Harris: "It's incredible! I would have said this was impossible if I hadn't seen the evidence." The mystery deepened when it was discovered that the relay had not in fact malfunctioned, but had merely reacted to a sudden surge of power from an unknown source. As stated in the final report of the U.S. Federal Power Commission: "The precise cause of the backup relay energization is now known." Where did the unexplained surge of power come from? To this day that question has remained unanswered.
