“Blackout Started from Damaged Transmission Lines in Ohio”

“America is a superpower, but has power grids of the third-world countries,” said Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

The United States had to endure humiliation due to the worst-ever electrical blackout. The country failed to minimize the blackout areas, a lesson from a huge blackout in 1965. “I see this as an urgent warning,” said U.S. President George W. Bush. “The blackout made us realize the need for upgrading the power grids.”

The losses are estimated to reach hundreds billions of dollars, economists say.

The blackout in eight states in the U.S. and the province of Ontario in Canada occurred due to a malfunctioning power-transmission line in Cleveland, Ohio, leaving 5 million people in darkness.

The power failure in suburban Cleveland around 3 p.m. on August 14 led to chaos, according to the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC). Nearby transmission lines were damaged because of an overload only 26 minutes after the first accident.

For the same reason, three more transmission lines were damaged, causing problems with electric power in the eastern U.S. and some areas of Canada a few minutes later. Damaged transmission lines led to other problems in power plants, paralyzing other powerhouses within 10 seconds and sparking a full-blown blackout from 4:11 p.m.

Electricity experts have been saying that the power grids in the Midwest are far too overloaded. The warnings were given to Ohio, in particular, but fell on deaf ears, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Fluctuating voltage was seen in some parts of Ohio from 3 p.m. on Aug. 13 but was ignored. Higher voltage than usual has been seen often and has lasted for more than a minute at a time since mid-June.

“Most of our electrical systems have been in use for 50-60 years,” said Gov. Richardson. “But the proposal to upgrade them failed to draw attention from the government and the public because it doesn`t sound attractive.”

In order to avoid such a huge power failure, transmission lines, towers, and transformers should be replaced and 56 billion dollars are needed, experts say. This is the only way to provide electricity to an increasing number of computers, larger houses, and large companies.

“No matter what the causes, transmission lines must be changed because they cannot hold up under the current economy,” Nora Meade, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), told the NBC network.

However, small private power plants cannot afford new investment due to the economic downturn and the price competition that has followed deregulation that occurred at the end of the 1990s. Moreover, they face strong opposition from environmentalists and landowners.

Kwan-Hee Hong konihong@donga.com