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In late June of last year, a set of storms called a "derecho" ripped through the middle of the country, killing power to an estimated 4 million homes and businesses along a path between Indiana and Virginia. A week later, 416,000 homes and businesses were still dark. In October 2011, a Northeast snowstorm knocked out power to 3 million homes and businesses. A week later, 176,000 homes and businesses in Connecticut were still without power. In September 2011, a technician made an error while replacing equipment on a line in Arizona, leading to the largest blackout in California history. "Until people come face to face with it, they aren't outraged by it," said Joseph Eto, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who published a study last year that found reliability getting worse nationwide. Every day, 500,000 Americans lose power for an hour or more, Amin said. Outages cost the economy $80 billion to $188 billion per year. Some power failures are unavoidable. But others aren't, and experts say shockingly low-tech equipment is to blame. Across the country, some utilities don't know if a customer has lost power unless that person calls to complain. Many utilities still rely on paper maps of their systems that become outdated quickly. In short, they struggle to find and repair problems, never mind preventing them. It's "uncomfortably common" for utilities not to know exactly where their equipment is, or how it's laid out, said John Simmins, manager of EPRI projects that showcase a new generation of digital equipment called the "smart grid," which is designed to better manage utility systems. Smart grids have sensors that can sniff out problems with equipment even before it fails, offering a chance to make repairs before an outage. But the old analog equipment has worked well enough for decades, and utilities are often reluctant to try new things for fear they will be penalized by regulators if the improvements don't work as hoped. "From the utility's perspective, the safest thing they can do to get their money is to do what they've always done," said Rich Sedano, a former Vermont regulator who now directs a nonprofit advisory group called the Regulatory Assistance Project. But promoters of the smart devices say the new technology, if implemented, could lead to a wave of improvements the same way automatic switches strengthened reliability beginning in the 1950s. The New Jersey utility PSE&G, one of the hardest hit by Sandy, filed a proposal with regulators last month to spend $3.9 billion over the next ten years to install remote-monitoring equipment that would make its system better able to withstand storms. "We live in a digital society," said Ralph Izzo, CEO of the utility's parent company PSEG. "This is about protecting our way of life." There are other, simpler ways to harden the system, such as replacing traditional wooden poles with those made using stronger wood, concrete or fiberglass, and protecting substations in low-lying areas from floods. Experts say average U.S. reliability will probably never be as good as it is in Japan or parts of Western Europe because the country is so big and its population so spread out. But experts say the frequency of outages can still be cut, and there is ample room to reduce the amount of time customers are without power after outages. "If we decide to make the investment to handle major storms better, we will improve our day-to-day reliability, too," McGranaghan said. Not everyone thinks that's the best approach. Jay Apt, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the school's Electricity Industry Center, said money could be better spent ensuring that communities can function better when the power goes out. That could mean installing backup power equipment in mass transit systems, police stations, gas stations, apartment buildings and grocery stores. But whether it's better to protect the grid or help customers endure blackouts, it all still costs money that nobody wants to spend, even if it might reduce costs and frustration in the future. "Every time you put a rate increase through," said Seth Hulkower, a former Long Island Power Authority executive, "customers go crazy."
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