[UPDATED] Report points to inefficient response after blackout caused by falling tree

The Cabinet-appointed expert committee to investigate the cause of the February 16 blackout which affected all of Trinidad for a total of 12.5 hours, found a large falling fungus-infected Palmiste tree was responsible.

Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales laid the committees report in the House of Representatives on Friday. The committee was chaired by Chandrabhan Sharma, retired professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of the West Indies, and included former T&TEC chairman Keith Sirju, and acting Police Superintendent Allister Guevarro.

Reading from the report, Gonzales said the committee categorically ruled out sabotage as the cause of the outage. However, it was not satisfied with the response of some key agencies in the aftermath.

"At the time of the occurrence of this trigger incident, the country was under a high wind yellow alert issued by the Meteorological Office.”

He said the tree fell on a single-phase T&TEC 12 KV distribution line near Grants Trace Extension Road and the NGC private road in Rousillac. The tree eventually fell off the line causing it to come into contact with the 220KV line circuit, which transmits most of the power from the TGU generating facility to T&TEC.

Gonzales said this triggered a series of events resulting in the shutdown of the entire electrical grid at around 12.52 pm.

“Madam Speaker, the entire episode, from the triggering of the event by the fallen Palmiste tree on the 12KV distribution line, to the shutdown of the entire grid resulting in an islandwide blackout, spanned about 3.6 seconds.

“Given the speed at which the events unfolded, the committee concluded

that there was no time for human intervention.”

The report also said the likelihood of a similar event happening in the future is extremely low because of T&TEC’s "robust line-clearing regime for trees and undergrowth via its line clearing crews.”

It said, also, that all 11 underpasses where 220 KV transmission lines cross over lower voltage lines between TGU and the Gandhi Village sub-station have been checked and found to be in keeping with internationally recommended specifications.

Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget had previously claimed the blackout was caused by a tree falling on two power lines.

In its submission to the committee, the OWTU accused T&TEC of using inexperienced contractors in its vegetation management and line-clearing division.

It said this department should be given adequate manpower and well-trained workers to perform its duties.

Gonzales said within one hour of the blackout, three generating plants operated by TGU and PowerGen tried starting their black-start units to restore power. A black-start unit is a unit which can start its own power without support from the an electricity grid in the event of a major system collapse or a system-wide blackout.

But Gonzales lamented there were multiple failed attempts to restore power.

The report identified a lack of preparedness among the independent power producers and T&TEC for such a situation, and the absence of a documented power-system restoration plan. Initial restoration of power started at 6.50 pm and total restoration was completed by 1.34 am the following day.

Ineffective management response

Gonzales said the committee identified several weaknesses in the management of the

response. These included “ineffective communication with the public, with heavy reliance on the internet and social media, which was negatively impacted by the blackout; the absence of the involvement of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management; the lack of a systematic approach in the restoration process which led to many unforced errors in the re-energisation process.

“The committee was also of the opinion that no single person took on the role of incident commander and had overall authority, as well as detailed knowledge of the restoration process.

“At the same time, the committee recognised the initiative of the protective

services to trigger a commendable response in the circumstances.”

Committee’s recommendations

One of the key recommendations to improve security, reliability and efficiency of the transmission grid is the construction of another 220 KV circuit from the Union sub-station to the Gandhi sub-station.

“The construction of this second line is already at an advanced stage with completion scheduled for the first quarter of fiscal 2023.

“The report noted that the unfortunate event had unmasked several issues pertaining to all parties involved, and that several of the problems encountered in restarting the plants were evident in 2013 when the system suffered a similar collapse.”

Gonzales said the committee found the independent power providers and the T&TEC staff made unforced errors in the re-energisation process.

“This can be easily remedied by ensuring that the operators are schooled in the understanding of the issues involved in a de-energised grid and the safe process to re-energise the grid.

“The report concluded that while there was great inconvenience to the population, there was no loss of life directly attributable to the outage. The blackout had laid bare the many shortcomings in our disaster preparedness and restoration procedures.”

This story was originally published with the title "Gonzales: Fungus-affected tree caused all-Trinidad February blackout" and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

THE collapse of a fungus-affected tree, during high winds, on to one transmission line and then another, has been identified as the cause of the blackout across Trinidad on February 16.

An additional high-voltage transmission line is being built to prevent a repeat of the event.

No authority took the lead in efforts to restore power after the blackout and these conditions had been in existence since 2013 and not attended to.

Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales made these statements after laying the report of a Cabinet-appointed committee into the blackout in the House of Representatives on Friday.

Referring to the report, Gonzales also said there was no evidence of sabotage as the cause of the blackout.

The speed at which the events happened, he continued, made it difficult for the authorities to respond.

He gave the assurance that the recommendations made by the committee will be addressed with urgency