High-voltage power lines and electricity pylons are pictured during sunset near the southern German city of Ulm, November 7, 2006. Europe wrung its hands last Monday over the root causes of widespread weekend blackouts, with Germany accusing utilities of slack investment and Brussels promising new measures to improve EU electricity transmission. Germany's E.ON said an overload of its northwest German high-voltage grid was responsible for the temporary power cuts. Klaus-Dieter Maubach, a board member at E.ON's central European energy marketing unit, appeared to confirm that the blackouts were triggered by the scheduled switching off of a line over the river Ems to allow a cruise ship to pass through.[Reuters]

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