AlpineRAM

I heard a quote from a former US minister who was concerned with energy that the USA as a first world country have the power supply of a third world country.
I don't know if this was quoted accurately or not ( now having been translated twice at least).
I'd also be interested in comments to that from people who have some in depth knowledge of the European compared to the north American power distribution networks.

DISCLAIMER: This is not meant as a flame or making fun of the people in the regions involved. This post is intended as a request for information, since over here to my knowledge we never had power outages over such a big area as the USA and Canada have now. My main interest is to get to know whether there are substantial differences between the systems or if we were just lucky enough.

AlpineRAM

LonCray

Yes, it was Bill Richardson who said "We're a superpower with a Third World grid". He's currently the governor of New Mexico, and was Energy Secretary under President Clinton. The DC area has power (apparently they were able to stop the cascade north of here) - which is nice considering it's supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far. And I echo whoever said they admire New Yorkers for getting thru this calmly and safely.

TPilaske

Hey this sucks! I have no power!! Glad the hospital system does! ;D Couldn't have happened on a hotter or more humid day! Some areas in the Metro Detroit area have their power restored, but not too many.... talk to you guys later, or when this is over... :


Tony

MikeyB

Yep, this is what happens when the enviromentalist won't let power companies add more transmission lines and nobody wants a power station in their backyard. There's a big stink in Mass. about adding wind generators off the coast.

MikeyB

dodgeman01

[quote author=LonCray link=board=10;threadid=18403;start=30#msg172891 date=1060954152]
Yes, it was Bill Richardson who said "We're a superpower with a Third World grid". He's currently the governor of New Mexico, and was Energy Secretary under President Clinton. The DC area has power (apparently they were able to stop the cascade north of here) - which is nice considering it's supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far. And I echo whoever said they admire New Yorkers for getting thru this calmly and safely.
[/quote]
Not aint it funny that the CLINTON adminastration was the ones who stoped the building of powerplants unless the ran off natural gas or water : How did he get elected I will never know.
DM01

dodgeman01

I believe there are around 6 or 8 power girds but because of deregulation the lines are not so clear. is this only putting us into a problem? if we have no grids that means what happend the other day could go sea to shining sea :
lol
DM01

Gonzo

Listening to Rush today and it was tossed out by one of the libs that all power grids be interconnected to supply power across the USA. I like you Yankees and Cali folks ok,,,but I ain't sharing my power grid :P

Hoss

Ditto!!

TXRAM2

yep what they said :P :-*

dodgeman01

In a way he is true. We all are on one big grid but with many smaller ones. that way they can stop a rolling black out like they did. Our powerplant sends power to everywhere. Just ask the load and plant managers they are always getting the push to up the load because this plant in Florida or Tenn or could it be yes even Texas... is down and they need more power to keep from haveing blackouts in that grid. so tell me whos shareing with who? DM01

AlpineRAM

[quote author=Gary - KJ6Q link=board=10;threadid=18403;start=30#msg172974 date=1060967234]


Well Alpine, to keep your comments in perspective, I think we'd have to consider population and industrial growth - how do you suppose your population/industrial growth numbers compare with ours?

It takes POWER to support population and industry - and it's not really hard to understand why our power generation and distribution has problems keeping up - and even moreso when you realize the resistance in this country to construction of new generation facilities by the tree-huggers...

Don't get me wrong - as far as *I* am concerned, population growth ranks right up there with money as the root of all evil... ;D ;D
[/quote]
Well I would like to compare the growth of gross national product per capita beween Austria and the US and also the absolutes.
As far as I have found out the US growth is a bit higher, but in the 90s the growth of the GNP per capita was 50% higher over here than in the US.
Source: http://www.verdi.de/wirtschaftspolit...fbewegung_2003
go to page 7 whereas inflation was almost 2/3rd higher in the US for the same time as seen on page 9.
If you can provide a link with more accurate and more in depth data about both countries I'd like to compare them to what I found.
I think that energy policies are some long term stuff the time to build new power stations and transfer grids can be estimated with 10-15 years from project start to an operable state. IMO

You state that it takes power to sustain population and industrial growth- I say that this means a market for power and therefore potential profits if you have power to sell and hence there should be investors who see chances in building more power plants.

I am interested in the economical reasons too, but my main interest is in any potential technical difference of the grids over here and in the US that made the difference of our seemingly more stable overall system.

AlpineRAM

Disclaimer: Again no flaming or flamebait! Just a search for information.

LonCray

Ah, yes, I knew somehow somebody would find a way to blame decades of not bringing the power grid up to modern standards on President Clinton. > So what is President Bush doing to fix the problem? How 'bout that Republican Congress?

Hoss

[quote author=LonCray link=board=10;threadid=18403;start=30#msg173843 date=1061215049]
Ah, yes, I knew somehow somebody would find a way to blame decades of not bringing the power grid up to modern standards on President Clinton. > So what is President Bush doing to fix the problem? How 'bout that Republican Congress?
[/quote]

Oh great....a liberal. : :P

hellotbone

Yep we were out in the heat for 2 days no power anywhere in the city all the traffic lights out people looting and such the odd CTD speeding with no cops to catch them U know the usual ;D It wasn't that bad really no food or water for 2 days cause we were on a pump and well and septic system while my parents were on holidays! Used to eating out when they aren't home you know. So the old BBQ got a workout.