By Mark Scott
Albany, NY – The State Assembly questioned top state and industry officials Wednesday about the cause of the recent power outage.
At a hearing in Albany, the head of the New York Independent System Operator provided few details on how the state responded to the outage. William Museler did say the system was hit with severe power swings within a few seconds, too fast for operators to respond.
The August 14th blackout affected the vast majority of New York's 7.5 million electricity customers. State lawmakers questioned why the blackout was able to spread here from Ontario. State Public Service Commission chairman William Flynn said that "right now we have many more questions than answers."
Assembly Energy Chair Paul Tonko said he did not want Museler or Flynn to speculate on the causes of the outage, but he did press them on why New York was not building more transmission lines. Museler said that while the causes of the blackout are still unknown, it's clear New York's transmission grid needs to be strengthened.
Both Museler and Flynn repeated the contention that New York needs additional power plants to handle a demand that is expected to rise in the coming years.