Perhaps the lesson to learn is that very large networks don't always lead to very high stability. A much larger number of smaller, more autonomous generation and transmission facilities might have much more reasonable interconnection requirements, and hence less wide-ranging failure modes.
And if we extrapolate that lesson to IP networks it implies that any medium to large sized organization should do their own BGP peering and multihome to 3 or more upstream network providers. On the other hand, if you understand why electrical networks shed load and develop their cascading failures, you might see some parallels between "load" and the propagation of BGP announcements which are worrying. Perhaps we should start working on a hierarchical routing system in which the concept of a "global routing table" cannot develop. Perhaps announcements and withdraws should have a TTL so that they never propogate very far from their source AS? --Michael Dillon