Boston, Aug 20: The worst blackout in north American history could provide billions of dollars in orders for makers of equipment and software that move and modulate the flow of electricity, but companies that help generate electricity see no such boom. Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution hopes to capitalise on selling products that direct power to and from transmission lines and software that manages electricity through an entire grid. “There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity,” said Bud Grebey, a spokesman for Siemens USA, part of German conglomerate Siemens.

“There’s going to be a lot of public pressure for the government to provide the public with a reliable and secure source of power with unified standards.”

But General Electric said it does not expect a boom in orders for gas turbines, the giant engines that generate electricity at gas-fired power plants.
“This blackout isn’t going to have a significant impact on sales of gas turbines,” said Dennis Murphy, a spokesman for GE Power Systems. Bureau Report