Major power outage in Downtown Detroit

Buy American · June-09-11, 02:31 PM

Major power outage in Downtown Detroit, oops!

**Detroitej72** · June-09-11, 02:34 PM

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the weather now.

**Detroit_uke** · June-09-11, 02:37 PM

CBS says that three "tie lines" were down. They are working on repairs now.

**professorscott** · June-09-11, 02:38 PM

I don't know the whole story but I know power was out as of about an hour ago at the WCCCD downtown campus. Why, and how extensive, I couldn't say.

**DetroitPlanner** · June-09-11, 02:42 PM

Lights are working in my building.

**SaintMe** · June-09-11, 03:06 PM

They're working here at Michigan and Washington

**Jimaz** · June-09-11, 03:14 PM

I wonder if it's related to that big solar flare?

**Carey** · June-09-11, 03:25 PM

It's probably the usual suspect: The Public Lighting Department. WSU, which receives its power from DPL, has cancelled classes tonight. DFD phones are not working.

I recall Bing, on the Tavis Smiley Show early in his reign, saying DPL was going to be privatized. I'm sure that has gone nowhere. The blackout is a perfect metaphor for the Bing administration.

**j to the jeremy** · June-09-11, 03:29 PM

Yup, the heat wave this week fried 3 tie lines from DTE to the PLD. Causing major headaches at work at WSU...

**mikeg19** · June-09-11, 04:17 PM

Bing's not gonna turn it back on until his budget is approved...

**JBMcB** · June-09-11, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by Carey

It's probably the usual suspect: The Public Lighting Department. WSU, which receives its power from DPL, has cancelled classes tonight. DFD phones are not working.

DPL was the bane of my existence when I worked at WSU. Trying to keep computers alive and happy when DPL's underground transformers would explode whenever it rained hard was difficult. We'd loose power pretty regularly in the summer. Then I switched to an office that was grandfathered in on Edison's grid, and never lost power again. Ugh.

**Danny** · June-09-11, 04:41 PM

Yes, all the traffic lights are out in Downtown Detroit, must that solar storm.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET!

The sun's 11 year cycle is right on time. IT FARTED AND SPREADING ITS GASES TO EARTH.

Neda, I miss you so.

**mwilbert** · June-09-11, 05:12 PM

It is a sign of the slow pace of reform in Detroit that Public Lighting still exists.

**kraig** · June-09-11, 07:38 PM

Before everyone comes down to hard on PLD, remember that Edison had 60,000 without power yesterday and still about 10,000 without power today. And let's not forget that DTE damn near burned down an entire neighborhood last summer.

Everyone that sells or produces power has problems, just saying.

**Rocko** · June-09-11, 07:44 PM

June 09. 2011 8:22PM
Officials say heat caused Detroit power outage

Darren A. Nichols/ The Detroit News

Detroit— A major power outage hit downtown and Midtown today, prompting the evacuation of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, shutdown of the People Mover, closure of several public buildings and cancellation of classes tonight and Friday at Wayne State University.

After 2 p.m., employees in the complex that houses City Hall and the Wayne County Circuit Court civil division were asked to leave. Power also is out at Cobo Center, nearby parking garages, federal facilities including the McNamara Building, Wayne State University, the Detroit Institute of Arts and several streetlights.

Only buildings served by the city's lighting department are affected, and all of its customers were affected except the Detroit Medical Center, a spokesman said.
The outage also left the website for the city down.

Power is expected to be restored in 24 hours. City officials said three lines were broken and that no one was injured.

City spokeswoman Karen Dumas said the outage was caused by extreme power demand for air conditioning after two days in the 90s. Even though temperatures were only in the upper 70s on Thursday, it had topped 90 degrees Tuesday and Wednesday.

She said it could take at least 24 hours to fix the issue, though Detroit's Chief Operating Officer Chris Brown told the Associated Press he hopes it can be restored tonight.

Brown said one of the five transmission lines from a power station on the city's southwest side went down Wednesday, and two more went down Thursday.

"Heat is the cause," he said.

James Hollins, of Flint, a contract employee in information technology, said he couldn't get back into the building after leaving for lunch because of the power outage. He worried about whether he lost valuable information on his computer at his work station.

As a contract employee, he said, there's "no work, no pay. That's a downer."
Wayne State spokeswoman Cheryl Yurkovich said she didn't know how many buildings were affected, but classes were canceled Thursday. A posting on the university's website indicated classes also were canceled for Friday.

DTE Energy Co. generates the power used by the Detroit municipal power system and sells it to the city, said DTE spokesman Alejandro Bodipo-Memba. He said the power failure happened in the municipal portion of the network and was not a failure of the supply system.

Dumas said city officials were warned about the possibility of a brownout.

The outage forced most FBI agents to leave the McNamara Building; switchboard operators remained inside using a generator that also powers radios used by bureau personnel, said Special Agent Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110609/...#ixzz1OpTpa6ob

- - - - - -

This goes to show the continued antiquity of the city Public Lighting infrastructure. I know PLC has been doing some serious line and equipment upgrades in some places in SW Detroit. I wonder which southwest facility they're talking about? Mistersky must be.

**Road_warrior** · June-09-11, 07:58 PM

This is the article when the same thing happened last year. I'm glad they addressed the problem after it happened last year.

Posted: 07/10/2010
As of Sunday evening electricity had been restored to most downtown buildings. Crews are in the process of restoring power to City County building. Everything should be back to normal Monday morning.
Crews say it will be completely restored Monday.
The outage in downtown Detroit lasted for almost two days. The City County Building, Cobo Hall, The People Mover, The Fountain at Campus Martius and a gas station where Detroit PD fuels up their cruisers, were all without electricity.
The Detroit Medical Center also experienced a brief outage, but a back-up system quickly kicked in.
As for the cause, a spokesman for the mayor says three "tie-lines" were damaged because of recent heat. Two of the three "tie lines" are still being repaired. One of them was supposed to be turned back on this afternoon, but it's not clear if that's happened.
DTE is not responsible for the site where the outage occured -- the city is in charge of the operation.
As for the People Mover, it is scheduled to open on time Monday.

DetroitPole · June-09-11, 08:18 PM

Work ceased at my workplace as well. Things are way, way too third world here. Just waiting for water to become sporadic and a military junta.

**Carey** · June-09-11, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by kraig

Before everyone comes down to hard on PLD, remember that Edison had 60,000 without power yesterday and still about 10,000 without power today. And let's not forget that DTE damn near burned down an entire neighborhood last summer.

Everyone that sells or produces power has problems, just saying.

But why can't we come down on PLD, and DPD, and DFD, and EMS, and DPW, and DWSD, and DPS and DPL when they don't show up or don't deliver or, in general, screw up? Why make excuses when the public lighting department experiences problems virtually every summer and officials admit the equipment is in shambles and so many street lights are on the blink night after night after night? Detroit does not function like most American cities function. There are many complex reasons for that dysfunction, but in the end, taxpayers receive less return for their money here than taxpayers elsewhere, and that's a shame, and that's why the exodus continues.

I think it's simplistic to say DTE "damn near burned down an entire neighborhood last summer." Blocks did burn down, and DTE wires were part of the cause, though the state Public Service Commission's investigation failed to find DTE was the main culprit in that disaster. If you listen to the radio ads currently being run by the Detroit fire union, the cause of the 80 destroyed homes was an overmatched and undermanned DFD.

**Baselinepunk** · June-09-11, 09:27 PM

Great opportunity that showcases the need for off-grid and other self-sustaining measures.

If "they" can't provide it, DIY.

**Gistok** · June-09-11, 09:36 PM

Spent much of the afternoon in the Michigan Building [[Bagley & Grand River), and they didn't have an outage. But this may explain why the I-94 EB traffic was so heavy at 3:30PM.

**Meddle** · June-09-11, 09:39 PM

Two days in the 90s? St. Louis [[and many other cities) has had two weeks or more in the 90s. I haven't heard of any heat related outages there.

**iheartthed** · June-09-11, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by Carey

But why can't we come down on PLD, and DPD, and DFD, and EMS, and DPW, and DWSD, and DPS and DPL when they don't show up or don't deliver or, in general, screw up? Why make excuses when the public lighting department experiences problems virtually every summer and officials admit the equipment is in shambles and so many street lights are on the blink night after night after night? Detroit does not function like most American cities function. There are many complex reasons for that dysfunction, but in the end, taxpayers receive less return for their money here than taxpayers elsewhere, and that's a shame, and that's why the exodus continues.

I think it's simplistic to say DTE "damn near burned down an entire neighborhood last summer." Blocks did burn down, and DTE wires were part of the cause, though the state Public Service Commission's investigation failed to find DTE was the main culprit in that disaster. If you listen to the radio ads currently being run by the Detroit fire union, the cause of the 80 destroyed homes was an overmatched and undermanned DFD.

I don't think it's that common for cities to operate their own electric company anymore. And the city itself has been trying to get out of that business for years, but can't get anyone to take it over.

**BrushStart** · June-09-11, 10:57 PM

The power is on at my building, but much of downtown near Cobo is still dark. I don't know if anyone specific is to blame. California lived with rolling-blackouts for years due to Enron and friends. Anyone remember that? This is tiddlywinks compared to that.

DetroitPole · June-10-11, 07:06 AM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Two days in the 90s? St. Louis [[and many other cities) has had two weeks or more in the 90s. I haven't heard of any heat related outages there.

Seriously. Two days over 90 in Detroit and we get this? I mean, what are the chances it would be over 90 to days in a row in the summer in Detroit? So, so pitifully janky.

**kraig** · June-10-11, 07:32 AM

Originally Posted by Carey

But why can't we come down on PLD, and DPD, and DFD, and EMS, and DPW, and DWSD, and DPS and DPL when they don't show up or don't deliver or, in general, screw up? Why make excuses when the public lighting department experiences problems virtually every summer and officials admit the equipment is in shambles and so many street lights are on the blink night after night after night? Detroit does not function like most American cities function. There are many complex reasons for that dysfunction, but in the end, taxpayers receive less return for their money here than taxpayers elsewhere, and that's a shame, and that's why the exodus continues.

I think it's simplistic to say DTE "damn near burned down an entire neighborhood last summer." Blocks did burn down, and DTE wires were part of the cause, though the state Public Service Commission's investigation failed to find DTE was the main culprit in that disaster. If you listen to the radio ads currently being run by the Detroit fire union, the cause of the 80 destroyed homes was an overmatched and undermanned DFD.

Of course it's okay to come down hard on PLD or any other entity that's not doing its job correctly. I'm just keeping it in perspective that PLD is not the only entity that's having trouble. Every time this happens the call for privatization goes out and no one considers that DTE has problems of its own. But, no one is calling for them to get out of the business.

As far as the MPSC is concerned, I would think that an investigation that consisted of a few people meeting in Lansing to read a report submitted by DTE wouldn't yield much. The MSPC is one of the biggest rubber stamping groups in government whose members and employees are more concerned with trying to land jobs and contracts with the entities they're tasked with monitoring and investigating than anything else.