Arizona Utilities Trying To Prevent Outages Like Those That Plagued Texas This Winter
Download mp3 (9.74 MB)In February, three winter storms that swept across the central U.S. led to severe power failures in Texas. More than four million homes and businesses were left without power during one of the coldest spells that state had seen in years.
The blackout exposed the vulnerabilities caused by an aging power infrastructure, massive industry deregulation and a patchwork of energy generators and transmitters tied to a central network.
While the Texas power grid stands alone, Arizona is part of an energy network with 14 western states, a few Canadian provinces and part of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
The Arizona Republic’s Ryan Randazzo took a look at Arizona’s power grid and what we can learn from the Texas debacle.
The Show spoke with Randazzo about how similar or different the energy situation in Texas is to that in Arizona.
