Dive Summary:
- A decade after a tree branch in Ohio touched a power line and set off North America’s biggest blackout across eight states and parts of Canada on August 14, 2003, the U.S. electrical grid is more flexible and better managed, according to Associated Press energy writer Jonathan Fahey.
- Maintenance spending for overhead lines increased an average of 8.2% per year between 2003 and 2012 compared to only 3% annually between 1994 and 2003, according to a Ventyx survey of 200 utilities. The amount spent on devices and station equipment per mile of transmission line nearly tripled from $7,185 per year between 1994 and 2003 to $21,514 per year between 2003 and 2012.
- However, like no other time before, new threats from extreme weather events, cyber attacks and stress brought on by shifts in how power is produced is making the grid more vulnerable. Despite the increase in maintenance spending, the grid is not entirely prepared to handle these new stressors. Environmental regulation, competition from natural gas and the cost of maintaining aging coal plants will continue to limit operations.
From the article:
" ‘The grid that exists today wasn't designed for what everybody wants to do with it,’ says Joe Welch, CEO of ITC Holdings Corp., the largest independent transmission company in the U.S.”