One Worker's Mistake Caused Southwest Blackout
The massive power blackout that caused some 5 million people in Arizona, California and Mexico to lose electricity was apparently triggered by one person in Arizona. An Arizona Public Service Company worker "remov[ed] a piece of monitoring equipment," which set off a chain reaction across the region, according to the AP. More from APS:
The outage appears to be related to a procedure an APS employee was carrying out in the North Gila substation, which is located northeast of Yuma. Operating and protection protocols typically would have isolated the resulting outage to the Yuma area. The reason that did not occur in this case will be the focal point of the investigation into the event, which already is under way.
Power is steadily being restored but damn, it sucks to be that APS worker today.
[Image via AP]