It doesn't. That's the point. That's why the power company is selling these financial instruments, not buying them: so that somebody else does the hard thinking.
The price is the signal. You don't need a PhD to determine the message implied by the fact that energy traders are willing to give good odds (i.e. pay more than expected) to bet that your grid will fail in a certain locale on a certain date.
> the power company serve human beings
The power company not only dropped the ball but dropped the ball after someone told it in no uncertain terms that it would drop the ball in the time and place that it eventually did.
If they clean up their act they stand to make good money by selling similar securities.
> the financial traders represent the worst of everything about capitalism
Correct incentives are the best part of capitalism.
Detecting signaling is a financial game, not a concern of power companies. If capitalism requires you to hire PhD's who specialize in detecting complex financial bets against your company, the system is inefficient.
> Here's what it looks like to me: The smart PhDs figured out that the energy firm was performing too little maintenance. The energy firm was not willing to employ them to learn this for itself but it was willing to bet against them. The PhDs won and the power company lost.
Oh, btw, the power company serve human beings, the financial traders represent the worst of everything about capitalism.