Blackout investigators focus on Lake Erie power transmission loop

Speculation:

Introducing the Nanticoke Thermal Power Station, situated on Lake Erie near Port Dover, Ontario, Canada. It is Ontario Power Generation's largest, and one of the world's largest, coal-fueled plants. Nanticoke Station has a total nameplate capacity of 4,000 MW from eight Parsons 500 MW turbine generator sets. It also has a history of problems, resulting in upgrades. My experience with electrical upgrades involving generators, compressors, etc, is that, even though the new components are better by themselves, they are often not perfectly matched in terms of power profiles, timing, etc. for the existing transmission systems. However, even if Nanticoke didn't trigger the blackout, its massive power generating capacity (12% of all of Ontario's capacity), and placement in the Lake Erie loop, would contribute to large fluctuations and power-redirection surges in the even of a sharp decrease in demand in a particular locale that it serves.

Nanticoke powerplant