Outage in India Could Be a Harbinger for the Rest of the World

India's electric grid is particularly challenged in keeping up with its economy, but grids around the world are at risk from growing complexity and conflicts between water and power.

More than 600 million Indians were affected by this week's grid outage (see "How Power Outages in India May One Day Be Avoided"). But it would be a mistake to think that India is uniquely vulnerable to large-scale grid failures. The growing complexity and reliance on the electric grid in both developed and fast-growing countries is making stability tougher to achieve.