Do you remember the night the power went out? I do-August 14, 2003. I also remember the near panic as people started getting the word that the power was out in Pennsylvania, New York, and even part of Canada. Without power there was little information to go on, and after 9/11, fear was very high. Hard to believe that the entire incident could be pinned onto a single power line in Ohio. Overworked and transmitting power at maximum capacity, it sagged and touched a tree branch. At that point, it short circuited and sent a wave of power surges that cascaded across the power grid so fast it was impossible to stop. Within about 12 seconds, 6 states and Ontario, Canada were affected. It is at times like that in which we begin to realize how fully we depend on electricity to survive.
Modern life required power. Cities which drive the economic engine of the country, like New York with its Stock Exchange or Chicago with its Board of Trade, are useless without power. Without the interconnectedness created by our power grid, there is no trade. Transportation grinds to a halt. Not only are street lights and signals out, train stations and airports dependent on power for safe operations, but many public transportation systems are powered by electricity. Trapped in the dark for hours commuters along the Eastern Seaboard waited for hours for help getting out of tunnels, only to be stuck wherever they were. Then there are the issues of water. When the power grid goes down, water treatment stops and the water supply risks contamination from untreated water. Cleveland was on a boil alert for days.
A fluke? Perhaps. Yet America’s power grid is in the same shape across the entire country. America’s power grid is an achievement of incredible proportions. To create it, we built some 10,000 power plants. We hung 160,000 miles of high voltage power lines. We installed countless transformers and millions of local power lines and poles. However, now we face the problem that much of the grid is under maintained and due for a severe overhaul. To get an idea of how severe the problem is, take a look at the power poles as you drive around. Made from southern yellow pine and treated to stand up to the weather and to resist insect destruction, our electric poles have a life of about 30 years. When you look at the rotting and leaning poles around the country, you can see that many are way past their usable life.
In addition to the aging power grid, we face the dilemma of increased usage. The grid as we know it was never meant to handle the loads that we are forcing on it now, or will in the near future. We have seen a 15% spike in usage in recent years, and can expect another 20 % increase in the next decade. I don’t see this as helping to alleveiate the already overtaxed system. Outages are expected to increase-already the average household experiences 214 minutes of blackout every year. Just conisder yourself luck that you do not live in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois. They have some 200 blackout a year.
When the great power outage of the NE occurred, we had no way to know what was happening and thus no way of stopping it. In fact, the grid we are now using has little or no monitoring capabilities in place. Many power companies do not even know they have a blackout until they get the calls from their customers. Until they do, they continue to send power down those lines not knowing it is being lost. Overhauling the grid is expected to take 1.5 trillion dollars by 2030. That’s if we start now. Fortunately, the new smart grid will help to eliminate many of the issues that we face today. But what exactly is the smart grid, and how will it work?
The smart grid, is essentially a new grid with better lines, more hubs, and better controls. That means that we can draw more power from areas with excess when we need it, and send our excess to areas that have a need when we have extra. It will let us know when there are issues in transmission, and can reroute power better to allow for less consumers to be affected by small localized problems in the grid. Furthermore, it will eventually utilize smart appliances that will talk to the grid itself. Imagine power usage at its very peak capacity and we are nearing a blackout. If the grid sends out a signal to every refrigerator to shut down its condenser for a few minutes, we can avoid the blackout. This will allow the surge in usage to pass, or for the grid to reroute power to provide the necessary backup. Then the all clear signal comes out and fridges can again turn themselves back up. With the right technology in place, brown outs and blackouts could be virtually eliminated, and as this often happens in milliseconds, your ice cream won’t get mushy. As we increase our usage of plug in electric vehicles, they can act as back-up batteries, allowing the grid to pull a little power when it needs a little boost. More on site renewable electricity like solar and wind will also help, by reducing usage of the grid, and by providing a little back up for when it is needed.
We have the technology, now we just need the investment. With the answers in reach, I hope we start to make the leap before we see repeats of the 2003 outage on a more regular basis.
