Our Grid Still can't Keep up in the Summer

The AP has the story today of the the Outage that affected millions in the Southwest and Mexico last night.

8 years after a windy day knocked out power across the northeast, it appears that a similar chain reaction knocked power out across the Southwest.

This points out to two big problems. First, when the electricity grid is operating a peak capacity in the summer, there in no leeway in the system. Any problems will be magnified when there's so little 'give' in the system.

The second problem that this points out is that the power grid is not smart enough to react to problems. Although this has been pointed out as 'human error', the truth is that humans are going to make errors. If the grid was smart, a problem on a transmission line in Yuma wouldn't cause cascading problems across the system (including the shut-down of San Onofre nuclear power plant). Humans will never be able to react fast enough, but a smart grid would be able to quickly move power to where it was needed.