[snopercod]

Hey Willie. I thought you'd like this.

Seems NY has sold out the operation and maintenance of it's electric grid to a foreign country.

[syriacus]

Local utility has ties to origin of blackouts
By Craig M. Douglas / CNC Staff Writer
Friday, August 15, 2003

Yesterday's widespread blackouts stretching from New York to the Great Lakes and parts of Canada originated in a power system owned by Westborough-based National Grid USA.

Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., based in Syracuse, N.Y., was one of several energy providers knocked out of service yesterday after a massive power surge crippled power grids around New York City, Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa and parts of Massachusetts. Preliminary reports from affected areas tied the blackout's origins to the Mohawk-Niagara line.

In January 2002, National Grid USA acquired Niagara Mohawk, which provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers in upstate New York, for around $3 billion.

A National Grid USA spokeswoman said the company was investigating the matter and was not prepared to issue a comment.

National Grid USA, a subsidiary of London-based National Grid Transco, has the largest power-supply network -- 12,000 miles of transmission lines and 72,000 miles of distribution lines -- in the New England and New York region.

National Grid, which also owns Massachusetts Electric covering the central and western parts of the state, serves about 1.7 million customers in New England alone.

The blackouts conjured memories of the "Great Northeast Blackout" of 1965, when the failure of a backup power grid in Ontario turned the lights out on nearly 30 million people in eight U.S. states, including Massachusetts, and northeastern Canada. Many people, mostly in New York City, went without power for nearly 13 hours.