Gary’s Two-Week Blackout Is a Warning for America
Asia Spot LNG Prices Hit 5-Month High as Hormuz Blockage Drags On Surging data-center demand, electrification, transmission… Gulf producers are accelerating alternative… Leonard S.
Hyman is an economist and financial analyst specializing in the energy sector.
He headed utility equity research at a major brokerage house and… After two weeks of darkness, power has been restored to all the citizens of Gary, Indiana, an old, low income, lakefront, industrial city within sight of Chicago.
The outage did get some national publicity, TV stories showing the residents of Gary roaming around in the hot nights, showing empty refrigerators in dark apartments, complaining bitterly.
But, you know, not a story as spectacular as when an electric company burned down an entire island or when another one managed to set fire to Pacific Coast towns with glamorous names.
Just two weeks in the summer without electricity.
Some people complained that the trees had not been trimmed properly.
The local utility had infelicitously announced a reorganization of assets to attract data center business, too.
Not paying attention to the core business? The governor will investigate.
So what is the big deal? It’s an isolated incident caused by freakish weather.
Sort of like all the other incidents caused by freakish weather, drought, storms, blizzards.
That’s what scientists predicted more than two decades ago, predictions the electricity industry, by and large, chose to ignore.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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