Power struggles

The general amazement at the power failures that plunged New York and much of the US’s north-eastern seaboard into darkness five years ago was perhaps best summed up by Bill Richardson, former energy secretary. He quipped that the US was “a superpower with a third world grid”.

Yet the US is far from the only developed country with a shaky power structure. In fact, Europeans have also suffered blackouts as a result of their ageing electricity infrastructure. In 2006, a power failure in Cologne spread through France, Italy, Spain and Austria, with Belgium, the Netherlands and Croatia also feeling the repercussions.


The cuts were short-lived compared with the 18-hour blackouts Italy suffered in 2003, but they prompted Romano Prodi, the country’s then prime minister, to call for a European central power authority. Even today, Europe is still far from having a co-ordinated energy policy.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the world must invest $22,000bn (