Editorial Board
Neglecting Grids Would Be the Ultimate Power Failure
As the world consumes ever more electricity, infrastructure needs strengthening against a growing range of risks.
Back it up.
Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg
Failures in electricity grids are thankfully rare. But when they strike — as with the March fire that shut down Heathrow Airport, or the Iberian Peninsula blackout that left 50 million people without power in April — they raise a wider question: Are our grids adapting fast enough to a world of rising demand, new threats and cleaner power?
Breakdowns in such complex systems are inevitable, of course, given the variables acting upon them. Still, governments can and should do more to reduce the likelihood of failure in a cost-effective manner.