Could this be symptomatic of something else?

Are the number of outages increasing relative to the rates? Costs going up quality going down? Who to blame?

Article Last Updated: 9/12/2005 01:46 PM
Large portion of L.A. blacked out
Staff reports
LA Daily News

A large portion of Los Angeles -- from downtown to the San East Fernando Valley -- along with areas of Burbank and Glendale were blacked out this afternoon when electrical power was lost.

A Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokeswoman said two "receiving stations'' were impacted, and that crews were working to determine the cause. She could not immediately estimate when power would be restored or how many customers were affected.

Terrorism was not suspected, according to Sgt. Catherine Plows, though the Los Angeles Police Department went on "full tactical alert,'' meaning no officers were allowed to leave duty.
Traffic lights throughout downtown and the Valley were not working, causing major traffic tie-ups, officials said. Electricity was out briefly at City Hall and Los Angeles International Airport, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was running its subways using back-up generators.