Blackout Shows Its Silver Lining As Grid Wins New Respect
After years as the electricity industrys the neglected stepchild, Americas high-voltage transmission grid is beginning to get new attention and a flow of new investment. The huge Northeast blackout on Aug. 14, 2003, dramatized Dept. of Energy claims that the steady increase in power outages in the last decade was costing the U.S. economy about $100 billion per year. It came on top of growing awareness among utilities and regulators that congestion on the grid was driving up the cost of electricity by over $500 million per year as customers could not access the low-cost supplies.
The California crisis of 2001-2002, with its mix of soaring prices, utility bankruptcies and energy-trading scandals, highlighted this problem, and the blackout led to a flurry of reports and quick-fix proposals to immediately improve grid operations. But no decisive political action yet has resulted.