What does a blackout have to do with the role of generators in the energy transition?
The blackout that lasted about 25 hours and left most of the city without electricity, from 9:27 PM on July 13 until late in the evening of July 14, remains significant for us in 2025.
July 13, 1977, was an extremely hot day in New York City. At 9:30 PM, the lights went out across the city. An exceptional sequence of lightning strikes hit a power plant in Buchanan, a few dozen kilometers north of Manhattan along the Hudson River. The power lines supplied by the remaining active plants became overloaded, shutting down in turn and partially disabling the city's grid. The power company managing New York's electricity supply worsened the situation in its attempts to fix the fault, until the main generator in Queens, Big Allis, shut down, leaving all of New York in darkness.
Whenever we try to idealize a possible blackout scenario, we never fully account for all potential consequences, inevitably overlooking some. In the case of New York, the situation quickly spiraled out of control, making the 1977 blackout one of the most infamous in history.
It was a night of crimes and riots, where the police were often overwhelmed, limited to dispersing crowds and attempting to recover looted goods. Officers risked being hit by bottles, stones, and stray bullets, and there were hundreds of injuries.
Looting continued even during the day, and while the police guarded the ransacked stores, thieves sold the stolen goods from the night before. Firefighters also had a lot of work due to numerous arson incidents, alongside the emergencies caused by the blackout.
A Brooklyn hospital, where the emergency generator failed during the blackout, provided surgical and emergency care outdoors, using alternative generators to power floodlights, enabling doctors to treat numerous people, most of whom were injured during the looting.
Remarkably few people were trapped in elevators, often being freed in less than an hour. Naturally, some were stuck at very high floors. Around 500 people were dining at Windows on the World restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center when the power went out. They finished their meals by candlelight and were able to reach the ground floor using a service elevator powered by emergency electricity.
LaGuardia and JFK airports were closed for eight hours, as were major tunnels, which lost their ventilation systems.
The next morning, many wondered how many dead bodies would be found on the streets, but surprisingly, no one died due to the looting and riots of that night.
The 1977 blackout became a symbolic event for New York, often cited in popular culture as a representation of the city's struggles during those turbulent years.
What were the real causes of the blackout?
For over 40 years, the causes of the blackout have been attributed solely to an exceptional sequence of lightning strikes hitting the power lines. However, this was merely the trigger, not the cause.
The real cause was the failure to update the power distribution infrastructure to accommodate the actual electrical load of that network.
Now you may think: "...but the lightning..."
True. The lightning struck the first line, causing a blackout, and instead of isolating and containing the problem, the operator, Con Edison, decided to shift the load to a second line, leading to a total blackout.
If I drive recklessly and crash into a pole, getting thrown from the car, it's not the pole's fault, nor the absence of a seatbelt—it’s entirely my fault for driving at reckless speed. The damages are simply the result of all these factors combined.
The truth is, those were tough years in America, and Con Edison operated with a vulnerable grid and limited reserves to handle emergencies, which worsened the blackout and extended its duration.
Why does a blackout from almost 50 years ago matter to us today?
Because, once again, we are in a historical phase where we are underestimating the structure of our grids, focusing only on how to produce energy at the expense of reliability. (Speaking of reliability, have you read my article on the 5nine system? No?! Read it!!)
Back to the New York example.
Today, New York has a committed power capacity of 16 MW, compared to 6.5 MW in the 1970s—nearly three times the power load of the 1970s.
This increase is due to a diversification of production, which in the 1970s was exclusively fossil-based (which is not our focus here), but more importantly, to a series of initiatives launched in the years following the infamous blackout.
Expansion of Transmission Capacity: Massive investments have been made in transmission projects to bring renewable energy from upstate New York—where wind and hydro resources are available—down to New York City. These new transmission lines help balance the variable production of renewable sources and reduce reliance on fossil fuels in urban centers.
Energy Storage and Grid Decentralization: Large-scale energy storage projects have been introduced to manage the intermittency of renewable sources like solar and wind. These systems store excess energy produced during low-demand periods and release it during peak times, ensuring grid stability and energy availability. This aligns with New York's goal to install 3 gigawatts of energy storage by 2030.
Renewable Integration and Smart Grid: NYISO, the grid operator, has invested in smart grid technology to improve real-time monitoring and response, balancing demand with renewable energy availability. These upgrades aim to maintain reliability even as fossil fuel plants—particularly nuclear plants like Indian Point, which once provided a stable energy supply—are gradually phased out.
If you're interested in this topic, I suggest visiting the website of the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which manages the state's power grid and publicly provides real-time data on consumption and energy production. You can find my data sources under "historical demand data."
In general, we often forget that the best green energy is the one we don’t consume, yet we focus on producing so much that we waste it, as if renewable energy doesn’t need to be managed just as carefully as other sources.
We are not at an "all-you-can-eat" energy buffet. Energy is never free, even if it seems that way, and producing so much that we don’t know how to transport it without causing damage is quite alarming, if not outright foolish.
The Role of Generators in the Energy Transition
What role do those annoying and extremely inefficient generators play in today's energy transition?
Generators play an important and sometimes crucial role in the energy transition, contributing to the stability and reliability of power grids.
In emergencies or during extreme weather conditions, fossil fuel-powered generators (such as diesel or natural gas) ensure that critical infrastructure, such as hospitals and telecommunications centers, can continue to operate.
With the increasing share of renewable energy—solar and wind, which are inherently intermittent—generators serve as emergency reserves. If you think you can achieve the same result with an energy storage system alone, stop reading this article and keep your computer/smartphone on until it runs out of battery and shuts off.
#consistency
Regarding storage, with the rise of energy storage systems, generators can work alongside batteries to maintain grid stability, especially in microgrids, where they are used in combination with renewable sources. This reduces reliance on fossil fuel generators, using them only for peak demand, and better managing energy generated from renewables during peak production hours.
Finally, and most importantly, modern generators powered by natural gas or biofuels can...