There were, to be sure, some encouraging words heard about improving reliability. But they were only marginally reassuring, not so much because of what the utilities have or haven't done, but rather because of market conditions and Congress' failure to enact legislation mandating compliance with rules promulgated by regional grid managers.

On the plus side, the executives representing Cinergy, American Electric Power, Dayton Power & Light and FirstEnergy said they have:

Boosted spending on their transmission and distribution functions.

Cinergy has spent an average of $70 million a year over the past decade in Ohio, and a total of about $1.5 billion across its entire system in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, on upgrades to the network that allows it to move power from its generating plants to its customers and to connect to the regional transmission grid. (By comparison, Cinergy has spent about $1.45 billion systemwide since 1990 on pollution controls.)

Installed computerized enhancements that allow system managers to have a better picture of what is going on throughout the network.

Beefed up their tree-trimming programs. Don't laugh -- a tree limb brushing against a sagging FirstEnergy high-tension line near Cleveland is widely regarded as the trigger for the cascade of events last Aug. 14 that shut down power to 50 million customers in the Midwest, Canada and the northeastern United States. Though southern Ohio was spared, the blackout hit more than 2 million people in the northern half of the state, caused Cleveland's water supply system to fail and disrupted business activity.

The commissions that investigated the 2003 blackout generally agreed that another important factor was an inadequate system for managing the flow of electricity across the grid. Indeed, one of the chief recommendations to come out of the post-blackout reviews was that Congress require utilities to comply with standards set by regional transmission organizations, rather than rely on voluntary pacts.

The two regional entities that manage power flows in Ohio negotiated a protocol in December to jointly manage their lines. That's progress. But it's still a system that relies on voluntary participation.

Legislation that would establish a mandatory grid management network is idling in Congress. In part this is because some congressional leaders pushing for a comprehensive energy bill want the grid reforms to be part of it, figuring that will strengthen chances for passage. But some utilities, mainly in the South and West, are opposed -- in no small part because they want to make sure the grid functions mainly as a backup for their own power supplies in markets they control, rather than as a vehicle for wheeling and dealing power over large distances and establishing a competitive market for electricity.

Congress, in the near term, should pass a stand-alone bill that requires all utilities to participate in programs that improve the reliability of the electrical supply. Then it should address the underlying question of competition vs. regulation within the industry. The system we have now is a hodge-podge (Ohio, at least on paper, is deregulated, for example, while Kentucky is not) that makes a repeat of the 2003 blackout more likely.