|
This is the most ridiculous thing I can think of. The majority of people in this country have absolutely no idea how the power grid functions. Sure, this outage had an effect on people (and insurance will cover a bunch of it). I happen to live in an area that gets power disruptions all the time due to storms, tornados, etc. All we do is light up candles, keep the refrigerator doors closed and know that we are going to get power back eventually (usually within 12 hours). I also happen to be an expert on electric power distribution, electric rate schedules and power deregulation. The utilities aren't nearly as wealthy as you might think. Anything they spend that is not covered by the current rates you pay has to be covered through rate increases. These increases have to be supported by proper documentation and approved by the government regulatory agencies. What caused this failure was nothing as simple as one line coming down due to a tree limb. Think about electricity for a moment. Electricity is not a storable commodity. There has to be enough electric generation available to cover all people's usage at any one time. This usage generally peaks in the late afternoon or early evening in the late summer days when air conditioning usage is at its highest. The utilities do not keep power generation up all year since factories cost money and most of the time their most efficient plants supply the power. When usage peaks as mentioned above, they bring more and more plants on-line. These plants are not the most efficient plants they have since to operate them all year would cost the consumer and them more money. This is the way that utility rates are kept down. This is also the reason that electric rates are not uniform throughout the country. Parts of the country that have lower cost power (i.e. hydroelectric) pay a much lower cost than those areas that have nuclear power. This is part of what electric deregulation is supposed to accomplish. They were hoping to level power costs throughout the country, but some of the same issues with power transmission and distribution came up, and it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.
Enough about that. That firm is just going for the jugular when it is politically expedient to do so hoping to get an easy settlement. Look at the history of silicon breast implants to see what these kinds of firms will do.
|