We have updated Reason’s electricity pages to include a Reason blackout resource center. Transmission-related information will be provided here, updated regularly.
One very valuable resource available on our site is Ken Silverstein’s column on the blackout. Ken is a very incisive observer of electricity policy, and he correctly points out that
The wires business must evolve to meet the needs of a high tech society. The delivery system was designed a century ago and the technologies that run it are half as ancient.
And the regulatory apparatus in which transmission decisions are made is a relic of the 1930s. This apparatus is not flexible or robust enough to adapt to the changes brought on by increasing liberalization of electricity markets over the past decade.