Power Failures

No, I'm not referring to the situation in the Middle East, but rather the ongoing problems facing the New York Metro area (and indeed much of the country) over the continuing inability to maintain, let alone upgrade, the power distribution and generation systems around the country.

Queens has suffered from brownouts, fires in feeder cables and transformers due to the heat and demand from customers. There are some areas that have gone almost a week without power since feeder cables and transformers went up in smoke during the spike in temperatures earlier this week. Many businesses are suffering economic losses as a result of the problems, and yet many residents feel forgotten. Some think that if this situation happened in Manhattan, Con Ed and every politician would demand a fix within hours - and get one.

Tempers are rising at the same time, local politicians are having a field day of soundbites, especially when TV crews catch some Con Ed workers catching up on their sleep when they should be working to fix the problems.

Conservation can only do so much. People need the power, and the inability to provide it safely has led to these recurrent problems in parts of the area. The power distribution companies must do better in upgrading their systems to handle the loads, or else we're facing a situation whereby we'll continue to see scattered blackouts due to transmission and distribution failures.

Meanwhile, isn't it curious that we don't hear much about wanting to shut down Indian Point nuclear power plant right now? Guess someone realized that the area doesn't have sufficient power generation capabilities, and a shutdown would mean much of the area going dark.