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Rolling blackouts in CA had nothing to do with infrastructure - it was a ploy by Enron to raise the price of electricity by artificially reducing supply during
by fps 12y ago
Rolling blackouts in CA had nothing to do with infrastructure - it was a ploy by Enron to raise the price of electricity by artificially reducing supply during periods of high demand.
I live in a Boston suburb, and haven't been affected by a power outage lasting more than 30 seconds in the 8 years I've lived here. Those have always been caused by lines being hit by trees during wind storms, and supply is always restored by backup lines within seconds.
The US has a remarkably robust, high quality power grid. The biggest problem with it is that during peak demand we need to turn on coal fired power plants to supplement renewables and natural gas.
- JohnTHaller 12y agoMaybe Boston has a decent power grid. It varies quite a bit from city to city. NYC is aging fast. Hence our feeder lines blowing out several years ago taking out a chunk of Queens for over a week (fun fact: ALL of our ice cream shops went out of business as a result). Then there was Sandy that took out all of lower Manhattan when the power station near my old apartment flooded and blew up. We'll likely get hit with more of these as NYC will be more prone to flooding due to climate degradation. Don't forget the great northeast blackout of 2003, either. Living in a 12th floor walkup with completely dark stairwells and minimal/no running water for multiple days wasn't fun.