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Europe’s electricity system is not living up to its promises, according to a French advisory body to the prime minister, which published a report on Tuesday (28 January) largely blaming renewable energy subsidies for this failure. The EU’s energy policy hinges mostly on power management. However, the European electricity system does not function, according to a French government advisory body, the General Commission for Strategy and Forecasting (Commissariat général à la stratégie et à la prospective—CGSP), which presented the findings of the study on 28 January. …

When it comes to resale value, electric vehicles don’t hold their charge. Electric cars lead our list of the cars and trucks that lose their value faster than average. Also ranking poorly are some big-ticket luxury cars, and, not surprisingly, older, lame-duck vehicles that are late in their product life cycle and about to be replaced. On a list of predicted residual values for 2013 models produced by ALG Inc., the bottom three examples are the battery powered Nissan Leaf; the Lincoln MKS, a more upscale, expensive cousin to the Ford Taurus; and the Mercedes-Benz CL Class, a two-door version...

Almost a week after the D.C. area was pummeled with raging storms, many individuals are still suffering in the July heat without lights, phone lines, and, perhaps most importantly, air conditioning. In the immediate aftermath of this event, tens of thousands of Washingtonians, Marylanders, and Virginians were left without power. Storms across the country had similar effects, and Americans from Richmond to Detroit are still facing the summer heat without many basic comforts. As awful as this is, things could be even worse. Imagine for a moment that that the power never came back on.

(Reuters) - A powerful storm hit the U.S. capital on Friday, downing trees with wind gusts of up to 79 miles per hour, topping hurricane force levels and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes in the Washington area. Bands of rain lashed the city and winds toppled power lines and littered the streets with tree limbs as the fast-moving storm, which started in the Midwest after a day of severe heat, reached Washington and its suburbs late in the evening. WTOP radio said more than 800,000 people in the Washington area were without power. The Washington Post...

RIO DE JANEIRO — A massive power failure blacked out Brazil's two largest cities and other parts of Latin America's biggest nation for more than two hours late Tuesday, leaving millions of people in the dark after a huge hydroelectric dam suddenly went offline. Paraguay was also affected when the Itaipu dam straddling the two nations' border stopped producing 17,000 megawatts of power, resulting in outages in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and at least several other big Brazilian cities, Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said. The cause of the failure had not been determined, but Lobao said...

Oahu was without power overnight, possibly from a lightning strike, and Hawaiian Electric Co. officials said to expect it to last until morning. The outages, which began hitting various parts of the island at about 6:30 p.m., also affected the Kailua neighborhood where President-elect Barack Obama is staying. Mayor Mufi Hannemann said at about 10:10 p.m. that Honolulu police had talked to Obama. “He said he is fine and he and his family are going to bed,” the mayor said on KSSK. Gov. Linda Lingle advised all residents to do the same. She said Heco officials advised her that it...

All Western Europe touched by the electric breakdown PARIS - All Western Europe was struck Saturday evening by electric breakdowns related to an important failure of the German grid system of electricity, indicated in the night of Saturday to Sunday the Grid system of French electricity RTE. Some five million French, is approximately 10% of the population, were private of electricity on this occasion. "They are approximately 5 million consumers who were private" of current, with AFP a door of RTE declared. They "were gradually réalimentées between 22H30 and 23H00", it added. "Of the similar cuts took place in...

A previously-unknown software flaw in a widely-deployed General Electric energy management system contributed to the devastating scope of the August 14th northeastern U.S. blackout, industry officials revealed this week. The bug in GE Energy's XA/21 system was discovered in an intensive code audit conducted by GE and a contractor in the weeks following the blackout, according to FirstEnergy Corp., the Ohio utility where investigators say the blackout began. "It had never evidenced itself until that day," said spokesman Ralph DiNicola. "This fault was so deeply embedded, it took them weeks of pouring through millions of lines of code and data...

Reactive Power and the Blackout John Hanger, President and CEO, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) Peter Adels, General Counsel, Citizen's for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) While the investigation into the August 14 blackout continues, problems with reactive power are being looked into and given lots of attention - apparently for good reason. Voltage drops related to reactive power caused blackouts on the Pacific Coast in 1996 and in France in 1978. PJM itself came close to a blackout due to reactive power problems in 1999, avoided it, and took corrective steps. Yet, by having rigorous regional monitoring of reactive power and...

<p>Within hours of the lights going out in New York, Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton was blaming President Bush for the power failure. While the rest of us thought Mr. Bush was in California visiting a military base, she spotted him in Akron, Ohio, turning out the warning lights at the FirstEnergy facility there.</p>

NEW YORK (AP) - Scientists and engineers with the National Research Council warned the White House and Congress about the vulnerability of the power grid as recently as November, saying nationwide weaknesses needed to be repaired - and fast. Little has been done, despite a chorus of experts who've pushed since well before Sept. 11 to fix a grid that's riddled with threadbare links and plagued by chronic shortages. "The power grid has not gotten much more than important conversations since Sept. 11," said Paul Gilbert, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, which worked on the report for...

(Baghdad, Iraq-AP, Aug. 15, 2003 Updated 9:54 AM) _ Iraqis who have suffered for months with little electricity gloated Friday over a blackout in the northeastern United States and southern Canada and offered some tips to help Americans beat the heat. From frequent showers to rooftop slumber parties, Iraqis have developed advanced techniques to adapt to life without electricity. Daily highs have soared above 120 degrees recently as Iraq's U.S. administrators have been unable to get power back to prewar levels. Some said it was poetic justice that some Americans should suffer the same fate, if only briefly. "Let them...