Statistics show that year after year, United States businesses & residents are loosing power more often. These power outages are not to be blamed on disasters but merely on out dated & under maintained electrical equipment and our ever increasing dependence on electric devices to live our day-to-day lives.
"Experts on the nation's electricity system point to a frighteningly steep increase in non-disaster-related outages affecting at least 50,000 consumers.
During the past two decades, such blackouts have increased 124 percent -- up from 41 blackouts between 1991 and 1995, to 92 between 2001 and 2005, according to research at the University of Minnesota.
In the most recently analyzed data available, utilities reported 36 such outages in 2006 alone.
"It's hard to imagine how anyone could believe that -- in the United States -- we should learn to cope with blackouts," said University of Minnesota Professor Massoud Amin, a leading expert on the U.S. electricity grid.
Amin supports construction of a nationwide "smart grid" that would avert blackouts and save billions of dollars in wasted electricity.
In a nutshell, a smart grid is an automated electricity system that improves the reliability, security and efficiency of electric power. It more easily connects with new energy sources, such as wind and solar, and is designed to charge electric vehicles and control home appliances via a so-called "smart" devices."
Read Thom Patterson's entire article here.
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