Power grid is stressing out, U.S. says Federal report finds competition has degraded reliability A map of New York's power grid dominates the control room at the New York Independent System Operator, a not-for-profit corporation that operates the state's grid. A federal report found that competition is making the national grid less reliable. By Miguel Llanos MSNBC Jan. 7 Next time you turn on the lights, think about this: A new federal study of power outages last summer has concluded that the reliability of the U.S. power grid has been considerably eroded. A big factor, it found, is that utilities that used to cooperate are now fiercely competitive. THE FEDERAL government opened up competition in 1996, the idea being to lower electricity prices and save consumers money. Today, some 163 million Americans in 24 states have what proponents call the power of choice. Unfortunately, an Energy Department task force said in its interim report on power outages, that has also meant some utilities have adopted a strategy of cost cutting that involves reduced spending on reliability. Moreover, competition has also meant that its harder to figure out whos responsible for reliability. The overall effect, the report noted, has been the infrastructure for reliability assurance has been considerably eroded. The report also suggested the problem will get worse unless corrective action is taken. Power quality and reliability are increasingly important in a society that is ever more dependent on electricity, it noted. Aging infrastructure and increased demand for power have strained many transmission and distribution systems to the point of interrupting service ... (and) stressing the electrical system, the report added.

-- CoM (online@home.com), January 08, 2000

Answers

Yes, but how can we believe it? These government reports have turned out to be false time and time again. I don't think I need to go into detail.

-- Larry (cobol.programmer@usa.net), January 08, 2000.

Source???

Power of choice??? Like you will get different electricity from the power pole across from your house if you were to choose a different vender??? How could they tell who's power you were getting. Like trying to say the water from the plumbing is "sorted" by different companies supplying it. BS if you ask me.

I doubt that. This sounds like something someone made up, and there is no clue as to where htis was supposed to have been written. C4i again maybe???

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), January 08, 2000.

My experience as a consultant with the electric industry supports the findings of the federal report. As soon as deregulation hit, maintenance budgets were slashed and the knowledge base of experienced workers was lost with both mandatory and voluntary early retirement in favor of entry level (cheaper) employees. The rush was on to increase capital to either prevent (hostile) takeovers or to commit them. This just confirms what is already known to insiders in the industry. Thanks for the post.

-- PA Engineer (PA Engineer@longtimelurker.com), January 08, 2000.

Wellllll, we are sure wondering about the power grid here in Decatur, Indiana! Thursday of this week, we lost power six times, each for about 5 minutes each. The last time things went dark, there was a big explosion and "fireball" in the downtown area(as reported in the Decatur Daily Democrat). Seems two power lines blew apart (inbetween poles), and the fireball burned a 3 foot diameter hole in the asphalt where the lines came down. Fortunately American Electric Power was on the spot quickly and fixed things. About a third of the city and surrounding area were without juice. No explanation yet on why the power outages and the explosion happened. Got a chance to see how well our generator powered our house, though!

-- PillsBury DoughBoy (pbdb98@yahoo.com), January 08, 2000.

Thought I had posted source, sorry. It is from http://msnbc.com/news/354266.asp?cp1=1 today.

-- CoM (online@home.com), January 08, 2000.

Did you know that utility companies (w/the new deregulation countrywide) are meeting w/AC companies to team up? They are -- don't know all the details, but in summary the two will install in your home device that will not let AC run when there is peak usage of power in your area. Of course, everyone knows that AC is the biggest power draw. The AC companies are bidding very aggressively as they will be the installers and will service the equipment. Will just love having my home monitored.

-- claurann (claurann@aol.com), January 08, 2000.

The report actually was released by the DOE. You can find it on their homepage at: http://www.doe.gov/

-- PA Engineer (PA Engineer@longtimelurker.com), January 08, 2000.

once again i am amazed by the govts uncanny knack to release information at just the right time to take the pressure off their y2k predictions of everything being A-OK. well, so now we know, if the grid falls apart in a few weeks, then it WAS STILL NOT Y2K RELATED!!!

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), January 08, 2000.

Maintenance is a budget/bottom line issue, and its critical. My local provider replaced 2000 noncompliant devices this year. the other night a power line insulater failed letting the line drop onto another line which shorted out the substation. They'd have probably replaced that insulater last year if they hadn't been preoccupied with remediation. Its cheaper to fix it before it breaks and causes damage, but those worried about showing a profit don't think that far ahead.

-- John Litt,mann (LITTMANNJ@AOL.COM), January 08, 2000.

The button says "contribute an answer", but I'd like to pose a question since you all seem to be discussing electrical power and the grid. Alright, so I want to pose TWO questions..grin.

1) My best friend called today to tell me she had just spoken with her son who works on a military base in Italy. He was asking his mother what she thought about NY and DC losing electricity immediately after the rollover. She was rather confused by his statement and asked where he'd gotten that idea. He said it was reported on the news over there. Question: Is it possible the elec. did go off for a period of time and they (the media & gov't) didn't tell us for fear folks might panic?

2) This same friend was listening to a radio in the car with her husband and the DJ said, "This is for the folks in the dark in Newark". She thought the elec. was out in Newark Delaware but found out today that it was Newark, NJ. This made me wonder how many folks are/have been experiencing elec. outages this week. Do you know of anyone who's collecting that info and making it available on the web? I went to the one site on the web that was linked to from here, but don't put much stock in it as it seemed anyone could post anything they wanted.

Thanks for your time.

beej

-- beej (beej@ppbbs.com), January 08, 2000.

Hey Beej - here's another question. How about asking your friend whose son is in Italy for some first-hand info from that country? One of the nagging questions many who read and post on this forum have is, why did Italy and other countries who did not fix everything have problems? It would be good to hear from people in those countries...

-- Pramada (pram108@yahoo.com), January 08, 2000.

beej -- power did not go out in DC. I was there. The only time it went out at rollover is when I flipped the breakers in our basement! LOL!!!

-- Libby Alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), January 09, 2000.