Pat Murtagh on large-scale electrical power system failures -

"The great ice storm of 1998 was, of course, only one of many large scale power outages that have become increasingly frequent worldwide in recent years. See the Wikipedia article on Power Outages for coverage of many of them and also to see how they are becoming more frequent."

"What is the problem here ? The answer is simple. As the provision of electric power becomes increasingly centralized, and as the delivery becomes increasingly dependent upon a complicated network of interacting systems failures inevitably become more and more common. Most of the major outages cited in the Wikipedia article didn't depend upon natural disasters to bring them about. They happened because the more complicated a machine becomes the more ways it has to fail. One doesn't have to invoke the hand of 'extreme weather events', though if one believes some such things will become increasingly common with global warming. Much ado has been made in the USA of the vulnerability of their power grid to 'terrorism'. Many resources have been put into safeguarding (or at least 'studying') against this event that has yet to occur while at the same time few resources have been devoted to safeguarding against events that have and do happen and that are becoming more frequent."

"The obvious solution to such widespread disruptions is one that is totally unacceptable to those who have power (in the political and economic sense) in both the private and public sectors. Building power generation facilities on a local rather than a continental scale appeals to nobody but those who might be most affected by the loss of power, those without economic means. Power megaprojects are indeed profitable, but only with the support of massive public investment. This sort of subsidy distorts the market and squeezes out other local initiatives that might grow up in the absence of such free money. One can 'harden' the power distribution system as much as one likes, and one can try and build in redundancy to cushion the effect of local events. But such 'fixes' often increase the chances of the very failures that they are trying to avert, as they increase the complexity of the system. Locally generated power can be produced in any number of different ways, many of which are being developed today."

"Being able to provide for electric power locally is high on the list of things that a community requires for real independence. Without such a fallback resource a community is inevitably tied to a central power, whether that power be political or economic. Should a natural disaster (as opposed to one that is created solely by the centralized nature of the power grid) occur the effects will remain localized and could be dealt with much easier. As it is the authorities whom we are supposed to trust as having our best interests in mind have pretty much bowed to the inevitability of such large scale disaster, and their 'planning' is much more about how to refine their response than to prevent such things. Perhaps prevention should be looked at as more important. But that requires examining the vested interests that live off the way that things are presently irrationally organized."

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Toban Black
(http://tobanblack.net/blog/?p=110)