The regional edition of Sunday’s New York Times devoted an opinion page to discussion about the New York City power blackout, including comments by Anjan Bose, WSU Regents professor and Distinguished Professor of Electric Power Engineering in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Bose was one of eight experts from across the country asked to comment on the power outage.
To read the comments, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/opinion/nyregionopinions/30CIintro.html?ref=nyregionopinions. Bose’s comments are reprinted below:
Sensors on the Grid
By Anjan Bose
People are talking about human error in the Queens blackout, but such finger-pointing is never definitive.
The major cause of the increase in blackouts in the United States is that utilities have fallen behind in expanding, upgrading and maintaining their systems. And this lack of robustness becomes obvious under stresses like high temperatures. Of course, Con Edison has the nation’s largest, densest and most complex distribution network, which exposes it to more problems and makes restoring power more difficult.
Increasing redundancy by investing in more equipment is vital, but the use of new technologies to upgrade aging equipment is also a must. For example, more sensors to pinpoint faulty cable segments could probably have speeded up restoration in Queens. The industry has been slow to adopt new technologies and invest in their development. The utilities’ regulatory overseers, with their pressure to keep costs low, have contributed to this lack of research and development.
Anjan Bose, a professor of electrical engineering at Washington State University, worked for Con Edison in the 1960s.
