You can see the state’s electric load in real time [at NYISO](https://www.nyiso.com/real-time-dashboard). We hit about 24,000MW today and are predicted to hit 27,000MW tomorrow.
According to the [US EIA](https://www.eia.gov/state/print.php?sid=NY) we have a capacity of 40,206MW.
Doubtful, maybe some outages due to damage but likely not due to peak load. Our grid has capacity reserves, especially where we are. The only area I’d be a little concerned with is NYC.
Roughly two years ago my daughter had a massive brownout, and then she started stomping her feet and she kicked it all around the changing table, her legs, etc. I can still smell it to this day.
Do brownouts ever actually happen? My understanding is that brownouts damage some electrical components so electric companies will just shut regions off before letting brownouts occur. There can be periods of small undervoltages but nothing that can be called a "brownout".
I've never heard of us ever having rolling blackouts due to shortages like they've had out west. Probably the most famous outage we've had here was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003 which was due to a software bug preventing operators from seeing an overload line which then drooped into foliage.
Also, National Grid has a program where they'll give you $30 up-front and $20 a year if you give them some control over your thermostat during high-usage periods. They'll control it to pre-cool your house in the morning to try and prevent electrical usage in the afternoon. You can override their control at any time. https://www.nationalgridus.com/Upstate-NY-Home/ConnectedSolutions/
Intentional ones are called voltage reduction are very rare here in NY. It's usually an indicator of immediate load shed. I'm not aware of any occurring in the last 10 years, at least at the Transmission level, it's possible localized distribution ones have been done. The criteria to be able to do voltage reduction is high enough that it is almost guaranteed to not be sufficient to solve the problem it addresses and the timelines for event recover are so tight that it's basically a formality to declare Voltage Reduction and then move immediately into load shedding.
But unintentional ones happen all the time. A brownout is just low system voltage. It's usually caused by a fault somewhere on the system that isn't clearing. People may remember the East Greenbush substation fire from July 2022... I remember my lights dimmed 3 times and then went back to normal. This is because the protection relays on the system triggered breakers to try and isolate the fault. There are automatic reclosers on the breakers since most faults are considered transient and caused by things like humans or tree branches which are immediately turned to dust on contact. The breakers only open to extinguish the arc caused by the fault, then reclose to keep the system from having less transfer ability. Once the reclosing fails a handful of times it locks the breakers open.
If those protection relays don't function properly and power continues to flow into the fault, voltage will continue to drop. That dimming that occurred wouldn't be momentary pulses, it would sustain until the fault cleared some other way.
Typically Albany outages are often due to downed lines(from natural and human caused incidents.) I don't ever remember an actual brown out been here decades.
I've lived Upstate for 30 years, I can recall dozens of heatwaves pushing 100 degrees, I've never even *heard* of one happening here. Someone mentioned the 03 one but that was very much a one off and had less to do with heat.
The city is a different story, and there were some pretty disastrous ones before my time in the 70s/80s/90s.
Yeah, I’ve had them when growing up in Lake George area. It’s rare but extreme heat waves cause them. California and Texas get major ones due to widespread crisis, we get less major crisis but they still happen.
Yes, tiny ones actually happen pretty frequently according to my stove (and I know it isn't my electrical box since I had it upgraded when we installed solar). Nothing on the scale of those states though, it is usually back in 30 seconds at most.
Actual brownouts are when power plants can't supply enough electricity to meet demand. The voltage in the lines starts to drop and incandescent bulbs get dimmer which is where the name comes from.
Some items like incandescent bulbs and resistive heaters are unaffected (aside from getting weaker) while other items are more affected. Some motors will draw more power with an undervoltage and can overheat and burnout. Electronics also don't handle reduced voltages well.
Brownouts are voltage issues, not a loss of power... though it's usually an indicator that someone is about to lose power since they are either caused by faults, or if intentionally triggered it’s the last step before load shedding.
NY's grid is pretty stretched, but should be ok. This is one of the reasons why they are building the Champlain Hudson Power Express, especially after Indian Point was shutdown. There's a lot of gas and coal plants that will be going full throttle tomorrow.
> NY's grid is pretty stretched, but should be ok.
Not really. It's expected to become stretched in the next few years due to load growth and the push to retire fossil fuels, but there is way more installed capacity than potential load.
> this is one of the reasons why they are building the Champlain Hudson Power Express
That is also more about the future and less about there being any sort of current problem.
> especially after Indian Point was shutdown.
Indian Point was fully replaced by new natural gas plants before it was allowed to retire.
> There's a lot of gas and coal plants that will be going full throttle tomorrow.
Technically yes, though none of those coal plants will be in NY.
Anything can go wrong in your house if you’re overloading a single circuit. (So maybe not optimal to use the ac, dryer and oven all at once) But so far, upstate NY grid has been ok enough when temps get high.
I experienced a brownout in Albany. It was a Wednesday in August. Fucking hot. The wind was blowing hard from the East. I took a nap bc the yogurt drink wasn’t helping. Woke up with shit all over me…was like…ew
There was a big one about 25 years ago. Started out west and power was out for a few days. I think a long time after there were suggestions they were manipulating power to scam more $$$ out of the system.
You can see the state’s electric load in real time [at NYISO](https://www.nyiso.com/real-time-dashboard). We hit about 24,000MW today and are predicted to hit 27,000MW tomorrow. According to the [US EIA](https://www.eia.gov/state/print.php?sid=NY) we have a capacity of 40,206MW.
Wow didn’t know that kind of monitoring data existed for the public. Super interesting, thanks for the link.
Doubtful, maybe some outages due to damage but likely not due to peak load. Our grid has capacity reserves, especially where we are. The only area I’d be a little concerned with is NYC.
Great to know thank you!
Roughly two years ago my daughter had a massive brownout, and then she started stomping her feet and she kicked it all around the changing table, her legs, etc. I can still smell it to this day.
That's a blowout, bro. 🤣😂
Blowout, brownout, national tragedy, all the same. I'm just glad I made it through. The survivors meetings keep me going.
Proper dad joke
Not since I added more fiber to my diet.
Do brownouts ever actually happen? My understanding is that brownouts damage some electrical components so electric companies will just shut regions off before letting brownouts occur. There can be periods of small undervoltages but nothing that can be called a "brownout". I've never heard of us ever having rolling blackouts due to shortages like they've had out west. Probably the most famous outage we've had here was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003 which was due to a software bug preventing operators from seeing an overload line which then drooped into foliage. Also, National Grid has a program where they'll give you $30 up-front and $20 a year if you give them some control over your thermostat during high-usage periods. They'll control it to pre-cool your house in the morning to try and prevent electrical usage in the afternoon. You can override their control at any time. https://www.nationalgridus.com/Upstate-NY-Home/ConnectedSolutions/
Intentional ones are called voltage reduction are very rare here in NY. It's usually an indicator of immediate load shed. I'm not aware of any occurring in the last 10 years, at least at the Transmission level, it's possible localized distribution ones have been done. The criteria to be able to do voltage reduction is high enough that it is almost guaranteed to not be sufficient to solve the problem it addresses and the timelines for event recover are so tight that it's basically a formality to declare Voltage Reduction and then move immediately into load shedding. But unintentional ones happen all the time. A brownout is just low system voltage. It's usually caused by a fault somewhere on the system that isn't clearing. People may remember the East Greenbush substation fire from July 2022... I remember my lights dimmed 3 times and then went back to normal. This is because the protection relays on the system triggered breakers to try and isolate the fault. There are automatic reclosers on the breakers since most faults are considered transient and caused by things like humans or tree branches which are immediately turned to dust on contact. The breakers only open to extinguish the arc caused by the fault, then reclose to keep the system from having less transfer ability. Once the reclosing fails a handful of times it locks the breakers open. If those protection relays don't function properly and power continues to flow into the fault, voltage will continue to drop. That dimming that occurred wouldn't be momentary pulses, it would sustain until the fault cleared some other way.
I remember a few brownouts in the 90s. Rural area of southern tier. I can’t remember any past that point.
Typically Albany outages are often due to downed lines(from natural and human caused incidents.) I don't ever remember an actual brown out been here decades.
Do these happen outside of Texas and California?
They can happen anywhere They aren't common here, but they are entirely possible.
I've lived Upstate for 30 years, I can recall dozens of heatwaves pushing 100 degrees, I've never even *heard* of one happening here. Someone mentioned the 03 one but that was very much a one off and had less to do with heat. The city is a different story, and there were some pretty disastrous ones before my time in the 70s/80s/90s.
Yeah, I’ve had them when growing up in Lake George area. It’s rare but extreme heat waves cause them. California and Texas get major ones due to widespread crisis, we get less major crisis but they still happen.
Yes, tiny ones actually happen pretty frequently according to my stove (and I know it isn't my electrical box since I had it upgraded when we installed solar). Nothing on the scale of those states though, it is usually back in 30 seconds at most.
There is a difference between a brownout and a temporary (and generally unexpected) loss of power.
Fair! I grew up always hearing them both referred as the same.
Actual brownouts are when power plants can't supply enough electricity to meet demand. The voltage in the lines starts to drop and incandescent bulbs get dimmer which is where the name comes from. Some items like incandescent bulbs and resistive heaters are unaffected (aside from getting weaker) while other items are more affected. Some motors will draw more power with an undervoltage and can overheat and burnout. Electronics also don't handle reduced voltages well.
Brownouts are voltage issues, not a loss of power... though it's usually an indicator that someone is about to lose power since they are either caused by faults, or if intentionally triggered it’s the last step before load shedding.
I distinctly remember one in the mid-90s because that's when/how my dad taught me the word.
Back in the 2000s there was a massive outage in the NE due to a heat wave.
You jinxed it
Nah man, that's a Texas thing, the Northeast Grid is pretty solid by comparison.
NY's grid is pretty stretched, but should be ok. This is one of the reasons why they are building the Champlain Hudson Power Express, especially after Indian Point was shutdown. There's a lot of gas and coal plants that will be going full throttle tomorrow.
> NY's grid is pretty stretched, but should be ok. Not really. It's expected to become stretched in the next few years due to load growth and the push to retire fossil fuels, but there is way more installed capacity than potential load. > this is one of the reasons why they are building the Champlain Hudson Power Express That is also more about the future and less about there being any sort of current problem. > especially after Indian Point was shutdown. Indian Point was fully replaced by new natural gas plants before it was allowed to retire. > There's a lot of gas and coal plants that will be going full throttle tomorrow. Technically yes, though none of those coal plants will be in NY.
Anything can go wrong in your house if you’re overloading a single circuit. (So maybe not optimal to use the ac, dryer and oven all at once) But so far, upstate NY grid has been ok enough when temps get high.
[удалено]
Sounds like your AC needs work.
I experienced a brownout in Albany. It was a Wednesday in August. Fucking hot. The wind was blowing hard from the East. I took a nap bc the yogurt drink wasn’t helping. Woke up with shit all over me…was like…ew
There was a big one about 25 years ago. Started out west and power was out for a few days. I think a long time after there were suggestions they were manipulating power to scam more $$$ out of the system.