Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ohio Utility Makes Electric Grid Improvements

This week marks the tenth anniversary of the Great Northeast Blackout.A massive transmission line failure in Ohio plunged six states and part of Canada into darkness. A joint U.S./Canadian task force blamed Akron-based FirstEnergy for the blackout, and company spokesperson Mark Durbin says improvements have since been made to the power grid.

Durbin says those contingencies include "capacitor banks" at substations to keep power flowing, as well as a new transmission center in Akron, where engineers can track the grid.

durbin-2_systems_08.mp3

Regulators of the U.S. electric grid have imposed millions of dollars in civil penalties for reliability violations since new rules following the blackout made such fines possible.

Jim has been with WCBE since 1996. Before that he worked as a reporter at another Columbus radio station, and for three newspapers in Southwest Florida.
Related Content