Experts discuss power outage study

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute (WPUI) recently hosted an executive roundtable based on a U.S. Department of Energy study on power outages that occurred in many regions of the country in the summer of 1999.

It featured two ECE professors who helped write the study on electric reliability in the United States. Fernando Alvarado and Christopher DeMarco were among the 15 experts who investigated power failures that occurred in regions throughout the U.S. including Chicago.

The study, released in March, sought to discover common threads in those outages that could help inform a national effort for blackout prevention.

For a balanced dialogue, Wisconsin Public Utility Institute invited Wisconsin Public Service Commissioner John Farrow and Jeff Knitter, manager of resource planning for Wisconsin Electric, to present their organizations' reactions to the study.