Reliability of the electrical grid is a big piece of the “package” that franchise-owning electric companies sell their customers. Just trust the local utility. No need to worry about your own costly, high maintenance generator, solar panels or battery. The utility has all the repair crews, backup generators and can get even help from neighboring power companies when necessary. It’s all included in the price.But a little over fifty years ago, the 1965 Northeast Blackout made people wonder about reliability but the industry got to work fixing the problem. This episode began with a faulty relay on the Ontario side of Niagara Falls but the resulting power surge quickly overwhelmed transmission lines throughout New York, New Jersey and New England affecting 30 million people in all.

Source: Spike In Grid Failures: The Next Big Headache For Utilities | OilPrice.com