No Gas No Electric Power - Yes, it Happend

Taiwan was hit recently by a massive blackout caused by simply closing two gas valves that powered six power generators with a total capacity of some 4,0000 MW or 4 GW!
How could that happen? The peak generation did not have reserve power. So the 4 GW tripped could not be compensated by other generations. It happens so fast!
The general stress was one aspect - another was an error made by humans, "almost 9 per cent of the island’s generation capacity, stopped after workers accidentally shut off its natural gas supply".

I am not aware of any details of the human error. One thing is clear: Our infrastructure is really under stress! It will take some efforts to get it fixed.

Click HERE for a news report.

We have really problems with existing and new infrastructures:

Check the pictures from the problems of the new train tunnel project in Rastatt (close to my home town Karlsruhe/Germany) ... you may read German as well ...

What happened? Who knows? Maybe the cheapest offer was awarded a contract ...
There is almost no redundancy in the Rhine river valley rail system ... redundancy costs money ...

It is a pity that new build infrastructure collapses and destroys old (still working) infrastructures.

Third training of the TÜV SÜD Training Tour in Taipei a big Success

The third two day training on IEC 61850 in Taipei (Taiwan) was attended by 45+ experts. The discussions during the seminar on Monday (2012-09-10) showed that there are already several companies implementing IEC 61850 – more to come in the near future.

Opening address from Mr Bill Lin (Managing Director, TÜV SÜD Taiwan):

Introduction by Professor S. L. Chen … a promoter of IEC 61850 who looks very happy to have this event here in Taipei:

Dr. Strübbe (TÜV SÜD Munich/Germany) reports about global activities on Smart Grid and how TÜV SÜD is prepared to increase Certainty and add Value in the area of testing: conformance, security, functions, safety:

Most of the attendees …

… listening to Karlheinz Schwarz:

Taiwan has nice people and a gorges coast line (Yehliu Geopark in the north):

The meetings with two well known companies in Taipei on Friday last week show that there is a huge interest in IEC 61850 in Taiwan and globally.