After months of being left in the dark, residents of Greenport finally got some enlightenment from the village board about why the power went out in August for an extended period of time.
The blackout had many village businesses crying foul and saying the loss of power impacted their bottom line and public safety.
Resident Bill Swiskey said he’d asked for the “root cause” of the blackout but been given no answers.
Village Administrator Paul Pallas gave an explanation: “What we found was that the transformer that feeds into the relay switch gear was wired backwards,” he said. “That told the circuit breaker that there was a problem with the transformer when there wasn’t, and when it got to a certain point, that transformer tripped offline and precipitated the whole event.”
“That doesn’t sound quite right,” Swiskey said.
Later, resident John Winkler asked about the outage again, and Pallas added, “The polarity on the transformer that feeds the new relay was wired backwards.”
Winkler said the village had spent $55,000 to have that system tested and inspected, and asked who’d pay for the repairs, adding that the transformer could have been “burnt out” from the incident.
“Why isn’t anybody with this power plant held accountable?” Winkler ased.”No one is canned or fired. Who’s looking out for the village taxpayer? This is ridiculous.”
Winkler added that a lot of local businesses were “hurt”, and hotel owners and managers who’d come in August to complain at a public meeting were promised a report, which still has not been distributed, he said. “I don’t think that’s fair. Someone has to wake up,” he said. “This is costing us a lot of money.”
Unhappy residents packed the Third Street Firehouse in Greenport in August demanding answers about a power outage that took place that month— and blasting village officials for what they called a complete lack of communication during the event.
One by one, they filed up to the podium, describing not only the inconvenience of being without power from 7:30 a.m. until after 9 p.m., but also, painting dire portraits of a young girl whose oxygen tank runs on electric and had to be hospitalized, and guests at a Greenport hotel with guests whose medication needed refrigeration — potential medical crises that threatened the healthy and welfare of village residents.
Mayor David Nyce began the meeting by reading a press release that was put up on the village website he said explained the outage and reminding that a planned outage would begin the next day.
After the Village of Greenport was left in the dark after a power outage knocked out electricity across the board in August, village officials issued a press release to explain what they say happened.
The outage, the release stated, occurred at 7:30 a.m. when, while in the process of performing “normal switching operations, to allow for the testing of circuit breakers, a relay caused both of the two sub-stations at the power plant to trip off-line”.
The release also stated that the situation was not one that could be resolved via use of a generator, “as this was not a generation issue. We were, in fact, able to energize both sub-stations early in the resolution process”.
But, the release continued, “While attempting to restore service, it was discovered that a low-voltage control fuse had also tripped. This prevented one of our sub-stations from coming back online. Once that was rectified, one of the sub-stations was re-energized, and we were able to restore service to four of our six circuits. During the restoration of the two remaining circuits, it was discovered that the distribution relay associated with these two circuits, in the older section of our sub-stations, were set at a level that would preclude the entire load being restored at the same time. Consequently, we were required to disconnect multiple distribution transformers to ensure that partial loads could be restored.”‘
Once that was done, the dozens of disconnected transformers were each re-connected, manually, one at a time, the release said. “This is an arduous and time-consuming process, but it is the only possible way to ensure the restoration of service in a safe and reliable manner.”
During the restoration process, the decision was made to tie together the two remaining circuits, under the assumption that a section of one circuit was not functioning properly, the release stated.
“Please note that, at some point, we will need to restore the entire system to its normal state, which may require brief, pre-planned outages,” the statement read. Village officials also thanked customers for their patience and apologized for any inconvenience.
“We were not planning to do this, nor was it by any means operator error or mismanagement. It had nothing to do with the upgrade,” Nyce said. “It was purely and simply a piece of equipment that started functioning, and our crew did their utmost to restore power as safely, effectively and safely as possible. It took longer than anticipated and that was frustrating to us.”
Pallas said the outage was “unfortunate,” and staff was in the process of “doing something quite normal when two circuit breakers decided to trip offline. It could not be foreseen.”
As a “wrap-up for this little mishap” Nyce said the brief scheduled outages for select village electric customers would follow, necessary to restore the system to its normal state. The outages, Nyce said, would be short.
Pallas said then that since the village is still investigating what caused the initial outage it could take a few weeks to get to the bottom of the problem.
Swiskey said he was filing a formal complaint with the New York Power Authority asking for an investigation. “We spent a lot of money and it doesn’t work. The other day is just a harbinger,” he said.
Swiskey, who worked for the power plant for many years, said the press release “makes no sense” and asked what relay tripped the transformer; Pallas said he did not recall the specific relay and said they are tied together through control circuits.
Joanne McEntee, of Greenport, asked who would pay for the damages to people’s electrical equipment due to the surge. “Will the village pick up the bill?”
“The village is not liable,” Nyce said.
She asked if residents were given fair warning that testing would be happening.
“This wasn’t a test, it was an accident,” Nyce said. “If we could plan an accident the world would be a much safer place.”
Deborah Pittorino, owner of the Greenporter Hotel on Front Street, said she was “very concerned about my business, my customers, and our village. I’m not here to argue or to cast aspersions but I want some answers.”
She asked who would be investigating the outage, the village or a third party.
Nyce said the village would investigate, “what happened, why it happened, and keep it from happening again.”
Pittorino said there had to be a way to get a third party, with no alliance to the village’s own internal investigations. “You’re investigating yourselves,” she said.
Nyce said the village did not gain anything by the power being out.
“One can gain by not saying exactly what happened,” Pittorino said, asking what to tell her insurance company.
“This was an unfortunate occurrence,” Nyce said. “Have your insurance company call us. No one is covering their tracks. This is not negligence.”
“It could happen again, right, since you don’t know how it happened?” Pittorino asked.
“Anything can happen at almost any given time. That’s what this shows. Accidents can happen and equipment can fail. We have systematically been replacing equipment for years.”
Pittorino asked how old the equipment was and said preventative maintenance was critical.
Nyce said there is scheduled maintenance at the plant.
Trustee Mary Bess Phillips said employees at the plant “take pride in what they do. They look forward to finding mistakes.” She, too, lost a compressor but said staffers worked tirelessly until 11 p.m. to make sure all the power was back on. “It happened,” she said. ” Now let’s pick up the pieces and move on We’re not LILCO or PSEG. If we were, we’d probably still be out.”
Any residents with questions for their insurance company should pick up a press release at Village Hall or download them from the website; Nyce said the village would also assist residents through the insurance process.
Trustee Dave Murray said residents in Orient have generators because they lose power often.
Pittorino said the reason she opened her business in Greenport is because the power plant is advanced.
“It is but nothing guarantees, 100 percent of the time, that the power will never go out,” Nyce said. “No one made a mistake. I was as simple as a fuse that blew.”
Trustee Julia Robins said she had a lengthy discussion with Pallas about what happened. “There’s nothing secret about what’s going on,” she said. “A little patience and calm is in order.”
Phillips reminded that during hurricanes and storms, the village has had power when other areas haven’t, and the same power plant employees should be thanked for their efforts.
“There’s no conspiracy. No one to blame here,” Nyce added.
Other residents questioned why no information was put up on the village website.
Nyce said the village had issued various press releases throughout the day; residents countered that they wanted information directly from village officials.
Resident John Saladino said no one was blaming the power plant employees. “We all know they did a good job,” he said. “This is about a lack of communication between the public and their elected representatives.”
Misinformation was spread, he said, with some being told their lights would be on in an hour or two.
“People suffered through this,” Saladino said.
Doug Roberts of Sixth Street thanked those who’d worked to get the power back on but called for better communication from village leadership. “I really wish I’d heard more from you,” he said. “We’re a small town and hearing from the people who run it, when times are tough, makes you feel reassured.”
He suggested village officials consider Twitter, better communication on the town’s website, or videos from town officials posted online so that he could hear updates from village officials themselves and not press releases. Since then, the village has begun using Twitter and Facebook to alert residents about issues.
Joe Heller of South Street said there should be a backup. “One switch should not control the whole deal.”
When Pallas said it might take some time to determine the problem due to the “complexity of the system” Heller responded, “Why should this system be so complex. We are not talking about rocket science. I’m disappointed.”
Jaqueline Dube, who works at the Harborfront Inn, said she was told the power would be back in two hours.
Nyce said he was in contact with the hotel. “We were in contact with you,” she corrected.
Dube said the loss of power was a real concern, with guests who needed medication refrigerated and no fire alarms working. “Communication could have been a little better,” she said. “This was seriously a health and safety issue.” Hotel staff had to hire a private security firm during the blackout, she said.
Mary Ann Jaeger said a child on her block had to be hospitalized because a portable oxygen tank could not work without power.
