You'd think that after last summer's blackout, power companies might have tried to do everything to make sure it didn't happen again. I know I was majorly stressed out because of it. Unfortunately, it looks as if this kind of power outage could, and probably will, happen again. The joint US-Canadian task force that issued the report outlining the faults also says that the '-3 blackout, and many preceding it, could have been prevented.
"The Aug. 14 blackout -- and every major regional blackout that preceded it dating back to 1965 -- could have been prevented if clear, common sense reliability measures had been followed," FERC Chairman Patrick H. Wood III said in a statement yesterday.
The power company at the heart of the problem is FirstEnergy here in Ohio. Given the fact that other states will be watching them like a hawk, one could surmise that any problems FirstEnergy has will be limited to in-state (or at least they will try hard to keep them from happening elsewhere). That means should the crap hit the fan, Ohio will be left to deal with it.
But Congress can make sure there are no more problems by taking action.
As it did last November, the task force urged Congress to enact a stalled energy bill that would create mandatory, enforceable reliability rules for the grid. NERC's rules would be backed up by the authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees wholesale power.
Let's just see if the industry will actually do something to keep this from happening again. But it will cost money, and you know they like to keep as mush as they can for themselves. Corporations first, citizens second.