Long-term power outages in the wake of Sandy have led many experts to scrutinize the power delivery infrastructure and look at how it could be strengthened.
A week after Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast, more than a million people are still without power. New York Governor Cuomo is threatening to find other utilities if electric companies like ConEd and LIPA don’t perform.
Electricity is coming back for those who lost power because of Sandy. Two days after the storm, about six million people on the East Coast are still in the dark, down from a high of eight and a half million.
The power grid is too large, too dependent on distant electricity supplies and not smart enough to pass the hurricane test. The result: long power outages. Upgrading to a more reliable grid will cost billions and take decades.
Hurricane Sandy is expected to cause widespread power outages in the Northeast, where utility companies and other businesses are still recovering from the last big storm.
India needs many more generating plants to keep up with exploding demand for electricity, but the distribution system is so corrupt that investors are reluctant to put money in new plants.