GE Energy Disputes Recent Blackout Accounts ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 2004--GE Energy issued a statement this afternoon disputing accounts, made over the last two days, that pointed to a flaw in GE software as the cause of this fall's Northeast blackout.
We take strong exception to recent claims that imply our software was the cause of the blackout, said GE Energy spokes person Dennis Murphy. Unfortunately, accounts over the last two days have focused on the GE software running in FirstEnergy's facility.
While the software program did not trigger the alarm processing, the operators at monitoring points had access to the accurate information the system was designed to deliver.
Murphy also indicated that the decision to replace the GE System was entirely unrelated to the blackout. FirstEnergy's decision to replace the software with that of another supplier was made more than a year ago and totally independent of the blackout, he said.
FirstEnergy Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Ali Jamshidi stated, FirstEnergy has not placed blame with anyone regarding the outage. We've said from the beginning that we do not believe that events on one utility system can explain the widespread nature of the outage. And, our decision to change the computer systems at our two control centers was made before August 14. One of the key reasons for selecting the platform we chose is that it is the same as the one used by our regional transmission organization, the Midwest ISO.
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CONTACT: GE Energy, Atlanta
Dennis Murphy, 678-844-6948
Cell: 678-642-0180