1. Industrial Electrical Engineering and Automation
Blackout in Italy
Sture Lindahl
Industrial Electrical Engineering and Automation

2. Introduction Blackout on 2003-09-28 at 03:28 Affected all Italy except
New world record 58 million persons
No expansion of nuclear power according to referendum
Yearly electric energy import: 17%
Power import: MW
Sture Lindahl, LTH/IEA

3. Background
Italy lost all transmission lines from France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia
The blame game started
RTE has requested UCTE to carry out a disturbance investigation
UCTE will report on
Sture Lindahl, LTH/IEA

4. First Event
At 03:01, sustained outage of the 400 kV Metten – Lavorgo (in Switzerland)
At 03:15, ETRANS called GRTN and requested a reduction of the physical power flow to Italy
The import was reduced by 200 MW down to the agreed MW
Sture Lindahl, LTH/IEA

5. Fax Information from Switzerland
Sture Lindahl, LTH/IEA

6. Second Event
At 03:25 the 400 kV Sils-Soasa (in Switzerland) tripped and the reason has not been published
Sture Lindahl, LTH/IEA

7. Fax Information from Switzerland
Sture Lindahl, LTH/IEA

8. Affected Region
Sture Lindahl, LTH/IEA

9. Restoration At 03:45, restoration co-operation started
At 13:00, the transmission lines to Italy were restored
At that time Italy imported about 85% of the value planned before the blackout
At 15:45, significant parts of Italy was not supplied
At 20:00 most of the load was restored
Sture Lindahl, LTH/IEA