This is the first of two editorials on rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy. Next: Federal flood insurance.
9:31PM EST November 12. 2012 - At least two things are predictable whenever a big storm hits the heavily populated and heavily treed Northeast these days:
- Vast numbers of trees and power lines will go down, leaving millions of people without electricity, not just for a few days but for a week or more. As of Monday, two weeks after Superstorm Sandy struck, more than 120,000 customers were still without power in New York and New Jersey. Much the same happened last summer after an abrupt and powerful "derecho" storm struck the mid-Atlantic, and long outages are routine after winter snow and ice storms.
- Once the storm passes, utility officials and politicians will say there's little to be done but to string up new lines in the same old places and brace for the next disaster.
OPPOSING VIEW: Utility workers were heroic
This cycle can't continue.
Thanks to computers and smartphones, Americans are more dependent than ever on electricity. But the nation's 20th century power grid is incompatible with its 21st century economy and increasingly extreme weather.
Not every country's power grid is as easy to bring to its knees. A 2006 study by professors at Carnegie Mellon University found that Americans lose electricity for an average of 214 minutes a year, compared with 70 minutes for the British and 53 minutes for the French.
How can European power grids be three or four times more reliable than ours? One significant factor is that more of their power lines are buried, which makes them all but impervious to wind and falling branches.
"Undergrounding" power lines is more expensive than stringing them overhead, but utilities and regulators often present only the cost of burying all lines. A much smarter, cost-effective strategy is to bury the most important and trouble-prone lines.
The widespread flooding from Sandy compromised some underground lines, just as it destroyed electrical substations and the electrical panels in countless flooded homes. That's a separate problem, with separate and equally important answers. Those include hardening infrastructure to make it less vulnerable to floods, especially in coastal areas.
Another big part of the solution is raising the competence of utility management, which varies widely. In the Washington area, sustained public pressure is starting to improve the reliability and communication skills of Pepco, a company that until Sandy consistently underperformed neighboring utilities. In New York, the Long Island Power Authority, which saw 1 million of its 1.1 million customers lose power from Sandy, has come in for scathing criticism from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and local leaders for its slowness in getting the lights back on.
Power industry executives note that Sandy and the powerful nor'easter that followed were extraordinarily destructive, and that utility crews brought in from around the nation have struggled valiantly to restore power, often working 16-hour shifts for days on end.
The crews deserve plaudits, and yes, Sandy was extreme. But the utilities are not powerless. They can bury more key lines, harden substations and protect cellular communications, a vital link when disaster strikes. But that will happen only when pressure from the public, the news media and ultimately the regulators who approve rate increases makes it happen.
It won't be cheap. But the cost of recent power outages, in everything from lost productivity to spoiled food, ought to change the equation.
Source: http://www.news.theusalinks.com/2012/11/12/editorial-power-grid-fails-digital-economy/
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