AS THE subway froze and the ice cream in the freezers melted, New Yorkers last week experienced first-hand just how precariously dependent modern cities are on electricity, and just how fragile is the network of generators and power lines that feed this dependence in the world’s largest economy (see “Preventing blackouts will cost billions”).
A report by the US National Research Council last year concluded the grid’s design left it vulnerable to “the simultaneous failure of multiple pieces of equipment from either natural causes (e.g. hurricanes) or deliberate acts of sabotage”. Yet the same report praised the same design…
