BLACKOUT SUPERBOWL

Once upon a time I was affiliated with Gulf States Utilities.....service area now part of Entergy, the provider of power to much of New Orleans.....and in particular the SuperDome Facility. The utility had issues with stability in the grid and seems that may still be a problem. More tech detail still not "revealed". In my home in the service area we had to routinely replace incandesent light bulbs....overvoltage for sure which blew the filaments. Only service I have had (had many all over US) where our bulbs went at a rate of about six a month. In all probability the relays in the Dome or in the yards adjacent sensed a surge - in the grid (voltage) or in the stadium (we refer to that as probably a short) and opened breakers to load shed.....the sensors are there to protect the equipment.....Knowing nothing about the internal configurations in the dome the exact component (if in the Dome) is not identifiable. It is doubtful the public will ever know the truth......but the power is obviously unreliable and a SuperBowl will in all probability NEVER be held there again.....lets hope. Actually there is a probability the stadium may have had to be evacuated and the game suspended......a real possibility. OH.....had nothing to do with Katrina or the warbler.......or voodo dolls.

And the Saints fans really hate the NFL office for the penalties for the bounty scandal.

No more Super Bowls in New Orleans? I don't think that will happen. The bigwigs who get comped tickets much prefer partying in NOLA over any other site, especially New Jersey.

Thanks for the explanation. I was afraid it was an Al Qaeda plot to give bookies heart attacks.

deltamrey wrote: Once upon a time I was affiliated with Gulf States Utilities.....service area now part of Entergy, the provider of power to much of New Orleans.....and in particular the SuperDome Facility. The utility had issues with stability in the grid and seems that may still be a problem. More tech detail still not "revealed". In my home in the service area we had to routinely replace incandesent light bulbs....overvoltage for sure which blew the filaments. Only service I have had (had many all over US) where our bulbs went at a rate of about six a month. In all probability the relays in the Dome or in the yards adjacent sensed a surge - in the grid (voltage) or in the stadium (we refer to that as probably a short) and opened breakers to load shed.....the sensors are there to protect the equipment.....Knowing nothing about the internal configurations in the dome the exact component (if in the Dome) is not identifiable. It is doubtful the public will ever know the truth......but the power is obviously unreliable and a SuperBowl will in all probability NEVER be held there again.....lets hope. Actually there is a probability the stadium may have had to be evacuated and the game suspended......a real possibility. OH.....had nothing to do with Katrina or the warbler.......or voodo dolls.

from a friend last night

The BIG MO did shift........and it was then anyteams game. BUT seriously IF the locals could have not got the power up and it was really a blackout......people in a panic could have died (bad PR)........luckly most were drunk and well behaved.....see any swat teams with tanks arresting little old ladies...... : )) our heroes.......

OH....BTW the insurance carriers for the facility will have experts (NOT ENTERGY) look carefully before insuring the facility in the future......and they will jack up the premiums as they should........New Orleans will pay dearly and Entergy will CYA heavily.....big $$$$$ involved. Thank God no one was killed......as far as we know to date.

NEW ORLEANS -- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Sunday's 34-minute blackout won't impact the city of New Orleans' chances of hosting another Super Bowl.
"I fully expect that we will be back here for Super Bowls," he said Monday morning. "And I hope we will be back. We want to be back."

The outage was blamed on an unspecified "abnormality" in the Superdome's power system.

(ESPN)

One theory was that the halftime light show overwhelmed the system. Makes sense since half the stadium still had power.

IF the halftime light show was the overload, the blackout would have happened during the show.......a fault is not "stored".....the action is literally at the speed of light......pardon the pun....