Severe weather continues to threaten US power grid

Los Angeles Times : Storms in the East and wildfires in the West have been causing problems for the US electrical power grid. According to a recent report by the White House and the Department of Energy, the grid remains “highly vulnerable” to blackouts because of extreme weather, especially strong winds from hurricanes and tornadoes. Over the past decade, almost 700 large-scale weather-related blackouts have occurred. And as shown by the Northeast blackout of 2003, when some 50 million people from the Midwest to the Northeast lost power due to a software bug in the alarm system at an Ohio control room, when the power fails, it can fail catastrophically by initiating a cascade of failures covering a wide area. The report had little to suggest in the way of improvements other than to increase the use of “smart grid” technology, replace wooden utility poles with metal or concrete ones, and bury power lines underground wherever possible. In addition, smaller-scale, renewable energy sources could be installed near hospitals and other crucial facilities.