London Hydro
President Hendrikus; Speaker Vinay Sharma (E/D of London Hydro); and, Club Chair Reinhold Scherer
Vinay Sharma gave an entertaining and informative presentation on London Hydro including how the North American electrical grid is inter-connected and inter-dependent. In 2003 the system was more "linear" whereby a problem at some point in the distribution network could trigger a much bigger problem. This was one of the reasons why the August 2003 blackout occurred. A field team in Ohio reported a problem that wasn't registering on the computerized display and was therefore ignored leading to catastrophic failure of the system affecting most of Northwest United States and Ontario. A similar situation is unlikely to reoccur because the distribution network is more holistic and field reports are not ignored.
London Hydro is "owned" by the residents of London and since its inception in 2000 has cumulatively paid $106,109,000 to the City.
Vinay Sharma's presentation can be downloaded from the file download section of the homepage.