The Worlds Second Largest Blackout
Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico more than six months ago, devastating the island’s economy and the electrical grid. Efforts to restore full electricity service continue. As of the beginning of this week, more than 100,000 Puerto Ricans were still without power. What was already the largest blackout in American history has now likely become, in our analysis, the second largest blackout in the world.
In a Class of its Own Within the US
Late last October, a little more than a month after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, we analyzed its impact on electricity service in Puerto Rico, as well as the US Virgin Islands, which were also devastated by the storm. At that time, power had been restored to only 26% of Puerto Rico and only 16% of the USVI, based on utility data submitted to the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. Using the share of generation restored as a proxy for the ratio of customers with electricity, we estimated that Hurricane Maria produced the largest blackout in US history.
During the remainder of 2017, utilities in PR and the USVI made modest progress in restoring electricity service, with support from the federal government and utility crews from around the country. Yet at the start of 2018, 55% of Puerto Rico and 26% of the USVI remained without power. Utilities began reporting the number of customers for whom service had been restored directly, as well as the percentage of pre-storm power generation restored. Full service was restored in the USVI in February, according to DOE data. As of the start of this week, power was back on for 96% of Puerto Rico, with 53,000 customers still in the dark. A “customer” is a household, which means between 100,000 and 200,000 Puerto Rican residents still lack electricity service.
https://rhg.com/research/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-worlds-second-largest-blackout/
Absolutely a disgrace.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Bannon was still in the White House, I think, and of course Miller still is. Not sure about Gorka -- but then there's also John Kelly who's a confirmed racist through and through. I thought this was an apt comment when I ran across it back then.
