Super Bowl Blackout Reinforces Need for Energy Storage

If you stayed up to watch the Super Bowl last night, you saw an amazing football game come down to the wire in an absolute thrillfest. However, you may have also inadvertently witnessed the future of energy while you were munching on hot wings, nachos or sliders and waiting for the Big Game to resume after a 34 minute power outage in the third quarter at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome inNew Orleans. So while the Baltimore Ravens eking out the San Francisco 49’ers are the subject of many water cooler conversations this morning (despite a non-call by the officials on the last 49’er possession), the loss of power at the Superdome, was another hot topic. The blackout seen last night (just months after Superstorm Sandy) was a very strong reminder (with the world watching mind you) that much more needs to be done to store power in order to keep the lights on.

Official Statement from SMG, the management company of the Mercedes Superdome:

“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. There were no additional issues detected.”

Alternative Energy