I should know better to ask a bunch of engineers if something is
a good idea, they immediately start problem solving instead of
considering if it should be done at all.
I think the power industry is similar to most other industries when
it comes to proactive notification of problems. ISPs are bad at it,
airlines are bad at it, and the power industry is bad at it. The
National Weather Service is the best, and they are correct only 50%
of the time 
Some power companies notify law enforcement in advance (a good idea
if you are really concerned about criminal activity), others don't.
Some notify large, important customers, others don't. Some notify
the media, others don't. Some notify end-users, others don't. The
City of Palo Alto has a web page, the City of Almeda phones end-users.
PG&E pages large customers.
Before doing anything, the first question which must be answered is
If you had advanced notification of (5 seconds, 60 seconds, 5 minutes,
etc) would it make a practical difference in what you do?
If the answer is yes, how much would it be worth to you, for how much
advance notice?
* Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> [20010322 13:35]:
If you had advanced notification of (5 seconds, 60 seconds, 5 minutes,
etc) would it make a practical difference in what you do?
No. The only time advanced notification is even going to be possible is
during planned outages, such as, say, rolling blackouts. The outages that
most worry me are unplanned outages since their ETR is less predictable and
I will potentially be more likely to need to consider things such as stressing
about whether the fuel contractor's SLA is really worth a shit.. (e.g. if it
is an extended outage).
If the answer is yes, how much would it be worth to you, for how much
advance notice?
Of planned outages: little more than a FYI. Noteworthy but doesn't
change a thing -- generator has to be ready at all times anyway. Hmm...
actually I just thought of one minor use: scheduling maintenance windows
around a planned outage might be useful. In reality though, you're
maintenance windows should already have contingencies for this sort of thing
by default. And any serious data center has multiple generators/UPSi for
maintenance on one set while the other is in use anyway.
Of unplanned outages: I'd probably want to invest in your company for its
psychic abilities. 
Maybe expand out into the stock market, etc., etc.
-jr