Deregulation and Niagara Mohawk - Is There a Story?

It's just a few hours after the Northeast U.S. power outage, and facts are trickling in; as of right now, it looks like an accidental overload knocked out a large part of the Niagara Mohawk power grid. A few years ago, California went through rolling blackouts that were largely due to a poorly-executed deregulation of that state's power industry. The question that's probably occurring to many of us is, did late-'90s deregulation play a role in today's power event? I don't know the answer, so I'm turning it over to you -- moderators, please check links and up-mod the most informative, pro or con. Here is some information to get you started: "We support deregulation 100 percent..." (N-M spokesman, 1997; notes N-M wanted to sell generators and "concentrate on the transmission and distribution of energy" -- did it?); N-M made some bad investments and is scheduled to request a rate hike (did it?); and N-M's own website says: "Deregulation [has] changed the laws and regulations governing the electricity industry to promote competition..." (how so?).

Comments

Re:Blaim Canada

[AvengerXP]

If you hadn't put 2000% tax on our wood MAYBE then you could run your wood-powered plants. Yes it's just a joke, i know you're running on nuclear power.

Re:The real question

[evilviper]

At a price tag of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a moderately sized building, millions for a large one. Are you going to pay for it?

You are managing to be vague enough that I really can't even rebut. How many people are in a "moderately-sized" or "large" building? For building generators, you can find units that cost as little as a few hundred dollars per person. Over the corse of a few months, you could pay that off without even noticing, and that price will pay for a unit that will be around for a long long time.

Ridiculous. Of course there are maintenance costs involved. You need to check it regularly, have it cleaned, keep it powered.

You do not need to check it, have it cleaned, or keep it powered. Those are the kinds of things you do (or have the building's super' do) when the power goes out. If it is working when you install it, there is nothing that is going to break from just sitting around, unused, for months or years, although you should obviously have the commonly replaced parts on-site just in case.

Then you have no idea what you are talking about

You keep saying I have no idea what I'm talking about, and I'll just keep saying that you apparently have no idea what I am talking about.