Did someone forget to put the lights in manual vs. override?

I think they're controlled by our server too ...

Now THIS would be a good service call


Outside feed? Beyonce knocked out a recloser??

And the finger pointing starts.

Entergy New Orleans is apparently saying on their Twitter account that the problem is not with their utility, they were providing power to the stadium.

Found a little more from another news article from the local news papers online service.

Entergy and SMG, the management company of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, issued a statement late Sunday explaining the power loss:

"Shortly after the beginning of the second half of the Super Bowl in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, a piece of equipment that is designed to monitor electrical load sensed an abnormality in the system. Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue.

"Backup generators kicked in immediately as designed. Entergy and SMG subsequently coordinated start up procedures, ensuring that full power was safely restored to the Superdome.

"The fault-sensing equipment activated where the Superdome equipment intersects with Entergy’s feed into the facility.

Full article here: http://www.nola.com/superbowl/index...3_fans_officials.html#incart_maj-story-1

This is my story, and I'm sticking to it:

Blame the Energy Code. I predicted this exact thing when the energy codes first came out a few years ago.

Commercial place: everything on occupancy detectors or timers. Timers limited to 2 hours in 'manual' mode, then return to program.

I bet someone hit the 'bypass' mode tolight up the stadium - you can be sure the SuperBowl is not a 'programmed' event. Two hours later and "CLUNK" as the timer kills the lights. Now we get to wait 20 minuted for the lights to re-strike.

I predicted it would happen during an NBA playoff. Close enough.

I'm with Reno.

I'm cynically assuming that the official line is to cover the extremely embarrassing reality: Smart Power over thought the situation.

Abnormality in the system, indeed.

"This moment of darkness was brought to you in memory of the Katrina victims"

I just find it interesting that from what I saw on TV only half the stadium lights went out. I thought they would all be controlled from the same system and all go out.

Apparently the halftime show can not be blamed for the outage as it was on generator power according to the Sr. Vice President of SMG who operate the stadium.

I thought that some medium voltage switchgear was tripped out.

Even half a stadium would draw more than 5,000 kVA at 480Y277.

Power was cut to more than just the lights.

John, when the lights went out, what you said about the lighting being on an hour bypass vs. manual override is the first thing that popped into my mind. (Hence my original post ) The lighting controls went from "showtime" to "clean up crew" IMO..

News and the word from during the game was an offsite malfunction caused the outage (reclosure picking up a fault?) I smell someone covering their butt!

Tesla.. There's no way this place could operate on a 480V feed from Entergy... I'm guessing at a minimum there's a 12KV feed to an onsite 12KV/4160V sub. From there, going to separate points throughout the stadium and brought down to 480Y/277V and 208Y/120V at individual electrical rooms. Just the size of the place would be a voltage drop nightmare at any less!

lost...

I'm glad you picked up on that.

If the stadium was wired like a casino...

Then the Poco would deliver juice via twin Primary Voltage feeders -- at 12 to 21 kV. Whatever Primary was, it would be directly stepped down to 480Y277. That transform is as common as dust.

Adjacent, dry type, transformers would provide 208Y120 current, very much the minor use of electric power.

The trip occurred at a medium voltage/ Primary Voltage level.

(In the Poco world, medium voltages = 2,000 VAC on up through 35,000 VAC. Depending on the grid, voltages throughout that range are popular as Primary Utility Distribution Voltages.

Long distance power is shunted at high voltages 35kV+ -- very high voltages and so on. I don't work that end of the street. Every time I turn around the classification of these voltages changes.

As a general rule: 1,000 VAC per mile of transit. If the Poco has to shunt current a thousand miles -- they'd like to boost it to 1,000,000 VAC -- even VDC.

No wonder 4160 VAC is so popular within major factories -- and RV parks.)

http://www.nola.com/superbowl/index.ssf/2013/02/super_bowl_blackout_could_be_t.html#incart_river

And, now, after all of the above brilliant speculation. ^^^^

"is no longer capable of sustaining the Superdome's maximum electrical demand on just one of the two available medium-voltage electrical feeders."

Just wondering do the the utilities have crews on site for major events like this?

And if they do what level would they be staffed at (single trouble man or full line crew), and would they have common parts onsite if required?

Both the old Astrodome and the new Reliant Stadium here in Houston have transmission lines feeding them complete with a substation on site (one for each) Distribution is with multiple HV feeds underground to transformer vaults at the stadium. Reliant Energy (the stadium namesake) used to be the main power co here until deregulation and now only sell power and Centerpoint Energy is the power distribution Co.

I just figured that half the AC SWGR was probably not coordinated.

Hmmmm.....

According to http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20130208/7f691ac0-78a7-483e-b050-eb6062ef98f6

Super Bowl blackout traced to preventive equipment

"An electrical device that had been installed expressly to prevent a power outage caused the Super Bowl blackout, ... Officials of Entergy New Orleans, a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., said the device, called a relay, had been installed in switching gear to protect the Superdome from a cable failure between the company's incoming power line and lines that run into the stadium....
The switching gear is housed in a building known as "the vault" near the stadium that receives a line directly from a nearby Entergy power substation. Once the line reaches the vault, it splits into two cables that go into the Superdome.... It remains unclear whether the problem with the relay was a design flaw or a manufacturing problem.... "It's not unusual for them to have problems," he said. "They can be unpredictable despite national testing standards recommended by manufacturers."

They updated the story: "Not long after the power company's announcement, the manufacturer, Chicago-based S&C Electric Company, released a statement saying that the power outage occurred because the electric load was too much for the equipment, "exceeding the trip setting for the switchgear relay as set by the system operators."

"Based on the onsite testing, we have determined that if higher settings had been applied, the equipment would not have disconnected the power," said Michael J.S. Edmonds, vice president of strategic solutions for the company.

mbhydro:
I can safely bet that next year when the Superbowl is here in NJ, that there will be POCO on site.

Discussions between our Gov. (Chris Christie) and PSE&G alluded to 'there will be no problems'!! Guarantee, at least a few line crews, a few Underground crews, and a lot of supervision, up to Division VPs will be there.

I have to talk to someone who was on site during the current stadium construction for his input.

Its interesting to find out what the all the utilities do for large events like this. Do they put bodies onsite for immediate response, have people staged at the nearest company facility or just treat these events like any other customer and tell them to call 1-888-get-help if there is an outage?

There could almost be a little village with hydro, natural gas, telco/cell providers, city sewer and water, backup generator techs etc if everybody wants to have a few crews on site.

I wonder if this will end up in court with allegations of the utility or the Superdome being sold protective equipment that was not suitable for the application?

I Hope to read about what exactly happened in some trade magazine sometime, the stuff we get from the general media will never answer the questions I want to know.

Nobody got Hurt, Everyone at the stadium made extra money probably, and it made it "memorable"

I Remember thinking to myself that I'm glad I'm not the guy who is going to get his butt ate out in the morning. It Would have been interesting to hear the maintenace radio chatter while the lights were restriking.

Got talking last night with some EE friends about how nothing had ever come out in the national media of the problem report from the '13 Super Bowl and found this report this morning.

http://entergy-neworleans.com/content/superbowl/130202_Report.pdf

With some luck the NY utility will not have any problems with the 2014 event.

To set the record straight, it is NOT the NY utility (ConEd) that has anything to do with the Super Bowl, or Met Life Stadium.

Electric is provided by PSE&G, and the stadium is in NEW JERSEY, not New York.

18+ months of prep for the event, and a secondary feeder are in place.

Manning is thinking turning the lights out might help his team.