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Consumers to pay 50m to update grid { August 17 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059479072406&p=1012571727088 http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059479072406&p=1012571727088 US public faces bill for power upgrade By Neil Buckley in New York and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington Published: August 17 2003 20:10 | Last Updated: August 17 2003 20:10 US consumers were warned on Sunday they would bear the brunt of the cost of updating the nation's power grid - put by some observers at up to $50bn - following the biggest power failure ever to hit North America. As investigators struggled to establish the chain of events that led to the power cut that affected 50m people in the US and Canada, there were calls for the US to increase investment. Spencer Abraham, US energy secretary, said utility companies would pay some of the cost of improving the system, but much of it would have to be passed on to consumers. "The rate-payer will bear the cost," he told CBS television. His remarks were echoed by Michehl Gent, president of the North American Electric Reliability Council, responsible for monitoring power transmission. "We need more transmission," Mr Gent warned. "We have a very good transmission system, but it's now being used in ways for which it was never designed." The probe into what caused the blackout was homing in on the failure of three transmission lines in north Ohio. Investigators were also struggling to determine why the failure led to such a massive breakdown of the transmission system. The system will on Monday face its biggest test since power was restored over the weekend, as millions of people return to work. Mr Abraham renewed calls for Congress to enact comprehensive energy legislation. The House and Senate have both passed energy bills, but there are significant differences between them. But he said it would be a "huge mistake" to strip out controversial provisions, such as allowing oil drilling in the Arctic, to ease the passage of the legislation.

15 minute outage college park { August 14 2003 } 50 million affected Air traffic control 30 second power failure { August 17 2003 } Alqaida claims responsibility for blackout { August 18 2003 } Blackout affecting parts metro detroit { August 14 2003 } Bush says not terrorism { August 15 2003 } Canada blames lightning Cia possibility terrorist tempering Consumers to pay 50m to update grid { August 17 2003 } Deregulation makes electric grid complex web Excuse for more deregulation { September 3 2003 } Fire destabalized grid { August 15 2003 } Fire edison plant manhattan { August 14 2003 } Fire florida substation Fire in pennsylvania nuclear plant Fire manhattan generator { August 14 2003 } Firstenergy assigned blackout blame Homeland security passed blackout test { August 19 2003 } Homeland security teams alerted Homeland security teams ready with blackout Huge power blackouts ny detroit { August 14 2003 } Human error cause of blackout { August 27 2003 } Italy has blackout Lodon outage lack of funding London loses power Major power outage Maryland schools open power back { August 29 2003 } Northeast blackout fire coned transformer Ny power outages not terrorism { August 14 2003 } Officials blame ohio Power2 [jpg] Simultaneaous faults caused england power out { August 29 2003 } System crash was predicted { August 15 2003 } Taskforce points the finger over blackout { November 19 2003 } Terror not ruled out Thats why no electricity in baghdad Traffic agent wrote tickets { August 20 2003 } Uk firm cleared in blackout Unconfirmed reports major fire { August 14 2003 } University maryland power outage Us canada argue over cause Utility deregulation possible villain { August 16 2003 } Files Listed: 42

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