UK firms cleared on big blackout

THE US power plant owned by National Grid Transco has been cleared of blame for the blackout that engulfed north-eastern America last week and led to NGT shares being savaged in London.

Initial reports that a lightning strike at the Niagara Mohawk power plant in upstate New York had exacerbated weaknesses in its network, triggering the blackout, have been discounted.

That comes as a relief to UK power firms such as NGT and Scottish Power, which owns companies on the west coast.

The problems appear to have started in Ohio on a system owned by FirstEnergy, a US company, which saw its stock fall 14% in New York.

British companies will almost certainly have to pump billions of dollars into the network, a prospect NGT and Scottish Power claim to welcome.

'Our approach is that the US grid would benefit from less fragmentation and from more investment,' said Debbie Drew for National Grid USA. David Kvamme, of PacifiCorp, owned by Scottish Power, said: 'A lot of investment needs to be made. We are all in favour of that as long as we're allowed to recover our investment.'