[lbo-talk] a third-world grid

[Diane Monaco]

The most massive power outage in US history may have started with a downed 
345,000-volt power line near Cleveland at 3:06 pm on Thursday.  This failed 
power line is one of 50 in a string of "problem" power lines -- for  years 
no less -- that surround Lake Erie...AND is owned and maintained (also 
regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) by the country's fourth- or 
fifth-largest utility:  FirstEnergy Corp.

Remember FirstEnergy?  They also owned and managed/maintained the 
Davis-Besse Power Plant that was allowed to have a hole in its head six 
inches in diameter and be two-tenths on an inch thin before any sort of 
shutdown.  Under the guidance of the NRC the whole region was two-tenths of 
a inch from nuclear mass destruction.

Btw, Toledo, where I live, was on the western most edge of the blackout but 
we regained our power in the evening.  However, that was not the end of the 
story here for me anyway:  my power surge strip also failed to separate my 
computer from the national electric grid -- and now it's screwed up.  It's 
all archaic!

Diane

At 06:10 PM 8/16/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>[This is from the anonymous Lex column in today's Financial Times. A few 
>months ago, Lex pronounced the U.S. mobile phone system to be of 
>"third-world" quality as well.]
>
>It is not clear what happened on Thursday - which part of the system 
>failed or (crucial for insurance purposes) whether any negligence was 
>involved. What has again been demonstrated is that the US has a 
>third-world power system. Analysts at Credit Suisse First Boston point out 
>that capital investment in the US transmission network has been broadly 
>the same as capital investment in the UK, despite the fact that US demand 
>is 10 times greater.