When workers were fixing equipment at a utility switchyard in Arizona, a mishap knocked out power for much of southern California, according to The Post. In the largest power outage in California history, schools closed, traffic lights went out and gridlock followed. And people were in elevators.
An aging and overtaxed U.S. power grid could mean blackouts will become more common, according to The Washington Post.
As the electrical system ages, it becomes more vulnerable to storms and other natural disasters. Plus, the grid is under increasing strain from growing electricity use, as people use more computers and charge their cell phones and other devices.
If transmission lines or stations in one area break down, other parts of the grid assume a greater burden and may, in turn, break down, creating a cascading disaster that threatens the entire system, The Post explains.
Half of India, more than 600 million people, lost power when the country’s grid collapsed earlier this week. Although a break down of that magnitude isn’t immediately likely in this country, experts warn blackouts and brownouts would become more common here without a substantial upgrade of our electrical grid, according to The Post.
And that would be expensive. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that an extra $107 billion is needed by 2020 to keep the grid running.
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