Italy: Almost all of Italy's 57 million citizens were left without electricity yesterday, when supply lines from France and Switzerland were knocked out, adding to a string of blackouts across Europe and North America this summer, write Fred Kapner in Milan and Robert Graham in Parisr.
The power failure raised new questions about the fragility of electricity grids in even the most developed economies, and highlighted Italy's growing dependence upon cross-border supplies of electricity.
Italian, French and Swiss electricity officials quickly attempted to lay the blame on each other, but it appeared last night that a unique combination of violent storms and human error - or delay - caused the blackout.
France and Italy have clashed over the liberalisation of their energy markets, with Italy frustrated by Électricité de France (EDF)'s attempted takeover of an Italian energy group two years ago. This summer, some Italian politicians blamed EDF, which supplies almost 17 per cent of Italy's electricity needs, for brief blackouts.
The blackout began about 2.25 a.m. GMT, and, while much of northern Italy regained power by mid-morning, many regions in the south remained without electricity late in the afternoon.
Citizens were asked to limit their power consumption to avoid recurrences. Trains and aircraft were in chaos throughout the day, but the economic fallout was limited. Few Italian factories operate on Sunday, and the major plants at car-maker Fiat and oil and gas group Eni have their own generators. "We don't have large operations on Sunday and we should have no problem tomorrow," a Fiat executive said.
Italian politicians were also quick to point fingers at each other and blame the blackout on a lack of investment or poor economic policy. But the likely trigger was a series of storms in the Alps. "It was a classic case where the tension fell in an instant and the domestic plants couldn't immediately react," said Mr Carlo Andrea Bollino, chairman of GRTN, Italy's state-owned electricity grid operator.
Atel, a Swiss utility partly owned by EDF, said a fallen tree knocked out a transmission line into Italy at about 2 a.m. That event, however, should not have caused such an extensive blackout, and Atel blamed GRTN for the consequences.
"The Italians had to react and, according to our information, they did not react properly," a spokesman for Atel, Mr Rolf Schmid, told Reuters.
The failure, and the very slow recovery of power during the day in the underdeveloped southern regions, underscored several problems inherent to Italy.
But, said French energy officials yesterday, it has also sounded a broader warning on the need for the European Union to improve co-ordination of electricity production to meet increasing demand. Even France, the EU's biggest surplus electricity producer, was obliged this summer to import supplies, as a quarter of its 58 nuclear power stations were shut down due to problems associated with drought and a heatwave.
French officials said Italy had long been warned of the need to take measures both to reverse its 17 per cent dependence on imported electricity and modernise its grid.
Italy's dependence has grown steadily for the past 30 years because of its failure to build enough new power stations. This is the result of its poor public administration and a national referendum in 1987 that blocked a nascent nuclear energy programme. Inefficient power plants mean Italians pay over 25 per cent more than the European average for their electricity. - (Financial Times)