This South America Country Ran Out Of Electricity
Most of Chile is without electricity because of a transmission line failure. Chile has an aged grid, a problem it shares with the US.
Reuters reports, “Chilean President Gabriel Boric said eight million homes had been affected by the outage, which he blamed on private firms.” It does not matter what the cause was. Blame may have a financial impact later. However, the infrastructure problem will not solve itself.
Chile’s Grid
The US problems may not be as great as Chile’s because of available capital and robust utilities. However, anyone who remembers the New York City Blackouts in 1977 and 2003 knows that America’s largest city, with a population of nine million, can be in the dark for hours or even days.
The Department of Energy reports that 70% of the US grid is over 25 years old. Some are much older. The average lifetime of large grid sections is about five decades. Some of the US grid is built on wood poles.
US Tariffs
Canada has said it will turn off electricity to the Northeast US grid to fight tariffs, but That will not happen. Another threat is that another country, perhaps Russia, China, or North Korea, could shut down parts of the grid with a cyberattack. Chile’s problem is that its grid is old. The US problem is vulnerability.
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