E N E R G Y

INDUSTRY RECOVERS FROM BLACKOUT Widespread power outage shuttered chemical operations

THE FINANCIAL IMPACT IS unlikely to be very large, but the electrical blackout of

Aug. 14 threw a monkey wrench into chemicals operations in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest and eastern Canada. Just about all have recovered or nearly recov­ered by now with no reported en­vironmental incidents.

According to an early assess­ment by Merrill Lynch analyst Donald D. Carson: "Chemical companies serving auto produc­ers and other manufacturers in the Northeast likely lost a day or two

of sales. But third-quarter results will largely be determined by the strength of September demand."

The blackout, for example, shut down a large BASF polymers unit in Wyandotte, Mich. Out­ages also clobbered eight DuPont facilities, five of which were in the Canadian province of Ontario. Merck's Rahway, N.J., operations were also interrupted when the lights went out.

Dow said its industrial bio­technology facility in Stony Brook, N.Y., suffered a power outage and its 147-acre chemicals

and plastics operations in Sarnia, Ontario, suffered steam outages. Bayer's Sarnia rubber operations closed down. Nova Chemicals had to shut down five plants in the U.S. and Canada.

Insight into how one operator handled the power outage came from Olin in Niagara Falls, Ν. Υ. The firm's chlor-alkali membrane unit experienced a "power blip" at 4:10 PM on Aug. 14, says Plant Manager Thomas Tirabassi. Most operations at the site immedi­ately began an orderly shutdown with battery backup power stand­ing by

"We were ready to ramp up production again at 6 PM." But nitrogen supplier Praxair warned that its operations were unsteady, and power authorities asked Olin to stay off-line until the power grid was more stable. Olin volun­tarily closed down the unit by 7:30 PM but was able to restart it two days later. —MARC REISCH

W H O ' S T O B L A M E ?

AGENCIES PROBE BLACKOUT CAUSE D O E seeks answers; congressional leaders seek grid reliability standards

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY is leading U.S. federal agen­cies in an investigation of

the causes of last week's electric­ity blackout, President George W. Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced last week. Codirecting the inves­tigation is Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhali-wal, with whom Abraham met last Wednesday

DOE takes over the investiga­tion from the North American Electric Reliability Council, which administers U.S. voluntary standards for electricity trans­mission reliability, Abraham said at a briefing. He stressed that the DOE investigation is already un­der way and fully supported by the council, energy industry lead­ers, and state and federal energy

regulators. He offered no time­table for completion, however. Others predicted a report by late September or sooner.

Also last week, the House En­ergy & Commerce Committee scheduled two days of hearings on the outage for Sept. 3 and 4. Testifying will be top energy offi­cials from utilities and federal, state, and local agencies.

And President Bush said Re­publican leaders in the House and Senate had told him that within 20 days a House-Senate confer­ence committee would take up pending energy legislation that will include grid reliability stan­dards as well as financial incen­tives to encourage infrastructure investments.

Officials representing power associations and the Federal En­

ergy Regulatory Commission voiced support at a press brief­ing last week for mandatory grid reliability standards as well as provisions to speed transmis­sion line siting and investments. However, unity waned among these officials as details were discussed.

Indeed, writing energy legisla­tion language that improves op­eration of the nation's electricity grid and is acceptable to all re­gions of the country may prove difficult through a broad energy bill, even when support is driven by a blackout of an area populat­ed by 50 million Americans.— JEFF JOHNSON

LIGHTS OUT New York City on Aug. U , the first day of the blackout.

SUNSET The FirstEnergy Corp. power grid near its Eastlake, Ohio, plant was the first of several sites where transmission failures occurred just before the blackout.

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