Why China, with same size of power grid, won t suffer outage like in the US
为什么拥有同样规模电网的中国不会像美国那样遭遇停电
How does the US, the most powerful country on earth, keep failing so astonishingly to respond to natural disasters? That question is on the minds of many in China and beyond, as they watched in disbelief a severe winter storm sweeping through parts of the US, leaving over 30 people dead and several million in the dark without power.
The shock was not over the havoc the harsh weather wrought, but was sparked by how unprepared various aspects of the US system were and how the country’s governing apparatus, at both the federal and local levels, responded to the natural disaster: knee-jerk fingering-pointing and partisan fights and profound ineptness and incompetence – which have already been laid bare in its failure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
But underneath the noisy narratives pushed by various political and other special interests, the failure was the result of a confluence of inherent problems for the country’s backward power supply infrastructure, including outdated generators and transmission lines and lack of regulation and national coordination, observers and experts noted.
While the harsh weather conditions were the direct cause, those issues are long-standing and prevalent, as the US has one of the most blackouts among developed countries, they added.
