You flip the switch, the lights come on. You turn up the thermostat, the heat comes on.

You turn on your TV or your computer or your stove or your washing machine, and they all spring to life.

That’s the beauty of having a reliable energy system. It’s gotten so reliable, in fact, that most of us take it for granted — until a storm knocks out power or the cable or the internet.

But except in the case of a major hurricane or blizzard, that outage might last only a few hours or days. Then the power guys do what they do, and we all go back to taking this system for granted.

But powering all those businesses and industries and homes for New York’s 19.8 million residents over 54,555 square miles of mountains, forests, flatlands and waterfront in all extremes of weather relies on a complex but delicate balance of various power sources and delivery systems.

When that balance is thrown off — by outdated and failing systems, by new demands for power, by unreliable energy sources and systems, by ebbs and flows of demand, and by the failure to replace and upgrade individual........

© The Leader Herald