Blackout Fails to Give Power Reform a Jolt

[cosmicdot]

Blackout Fails to Give Power Reform a Jolt

August 8, 2004 01:56 PM EDT


WASHINGTON - There is growing frustration among many power-industry officials and watchdogs that, one year after the country's biggest blackout, electric reliability rules are still voluntary. They worry that as the memory of that day fades, the momentum to improve the grid will, too.

Routine surveillance of the industry has been ratcheted-up in recent months, with government and industry engineers publishing their findings online. However, outside experts and even those involved in the so-called audits expect only a short-term benefit from a compliance strategy that relies on peer pressure rather than financial penalties.

"No utility is going to want a report coming out that they are not complying with the standards," said Hoff Stauffer, a transmission expert at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consultancy based in Cambridge, Mass. "But I don't think we should rely on this informal pressure, because over time it will dissipate."

For now, the attention paid to transmission reliability is unusually high as companies invest money and time to update monitoring technology and practices, executives said.

"If anything has dramatically changed in the past year, it's that - awareness," said Michael Kormos, vice president of operations at Interconnection of Norristown, Pa., a grid operator for several states. "Everybody's asking that reliability question first."

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"What can happen is that, if things are operating well for a while, people stop focusing," she added. "And when people get lax that's when bad things can happen."

http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=1&aid=D84B7ERG0_story


what happens if, per chance, a power 'issue' causes voting to shut down in places like Ohio? the way the Bush cabal operates, and, the ramping up to terra they've been doing ... how easy might it be to say it was a terra act?

what would America do if, once again, but in several states, no clear winner can be declared? has the precedent been established?

I'd rather not worry about these things, but I do. I think everything is on the Bush table, and anything is possible in order to persevere and maintain the good ol'boys power-hold, and their higher pies ...

[Massacure]

1. I remember seeing on the history channel once that

It would cost 4 trillion dollars to fully upgrade this country's electric grids, the natural gas grids, and the water grids.