'Slammer' Virus Didn't Cause Outage

by Informationweek

Sept. 8 -- Officials at FirstEnergy Corp., the Ohio utility under fire for its possible role in last month's blackout, said last week that a computer virus like the one that earlier infected computers at its Besse-Davis nuclear power plant wasn't to blame for the outage. Responding to a question from Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey during testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chief executive Peter Burg said FirstEnergy's grid computers don't use Microsoft software and so are immune to the Slammer worm. Markey, who wasn't satisfied, said, "FirstEnergy should not have a license to drive a car, let alone operate nuclear power plants."

Related News

Cape Town to Build Own Power Plants, Buy Additional Electricity

CAPE TOWN - Cape Town is seeking to secure more than 450 megawatts of power from renewable sources to cut reliance on state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

South Africa’s second-biggest city is looking at a range of options and expects the bulk of the electricity to be generated from solar plants, Kadri Nassiep, the city’s executive director of energy and climate change, said in an interview.

On July 14 the city of 4.6 million people released a request for information to seek funding to build its own plants. This month or next it will seek…

Global CO2 emissions 'flatlined' in 2019, says IEA

Wind and Solar Energy Surpass Coal in U.S. Electricity Generation

Aging U.S. power grid threatens progress on renewables, EVs

Rooftop Solar Grids