It’s the grid, stupid!
As every energy utility executive knows only too well, electric power is only appreciated when it isn’t there. If the lights go out at home it’s irritating. We make do until power is restored and then we don’t give it another thought, until the bill arrives.
Have you ever thought about what would life be like if we lost electric power completely; not just in your street block, but across the country? Just over six years ago we had a frightening glimpse.
On Thursday, August 14, 2003 a massive widespread power outage caused by cascading failures in the electric grid system shut down parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Ontario, Canada. It affected an estimated and 45 million people in eight U.S. states and 10 million people in Canada.
Almost the entire state of New York, including Manhattan, lost power. Wall Street and the United Nations were completely shut down, as were all New York area rail transportation including the subway system. Hundreds of people were trapped in elevators. More than 600 subway and commuter rail cars were trapped between stations. Governor George Pataki, declared a state of emergency. 40,000 police and the entire fire department were called in to maintain order.
Without traffic lights, there was gridlock on the roads. For hours into the evening the streets, highways, bridges and tunnels were jammed with traffic and pedestrians trying to leave Manhattan. With cell phone operation stalled by circuit overloads, New Yorkers were lining up 10 deep or more at pay phones. Many commuters were left stranded and slept in parks and on the steps of public buildings.
Passenger screenings at affected airports ceased. Regional airports were shut down. In New York, flights were cancelled even after power had been restored to the airports because of difficulties accessing “electronic-ticket” information.
Many gas stations were unable to pump fuel. Oil refineries on the East Coast of the United States shut down, and were slow to resume gasoline production.
Some areas lost water pressure because pumps didn’t have power. This loss of pressure caused potential contamination of the water supply. Four million customers of the Detroit water system in eight counties were under a boil water advisory until 18 August, four days after the initial outage.
Practically all businesses and retail establishments closed down. Large numbers of factories were closed and others outside the area were forced to close or slow work because of supply problems and the need to conserve energy while the grid was being stabilized. At one point a 7-hour wait developed for trucks crossing the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor due to the lack of electronic border check systems. Some industry including the auto industry did not return to full production until eight days after the blackout started.
Electric power is essential to modern life. Economic prosperity, national security, and public health and safety cannot be achieved without it. Communities that lack electric power, even for short periods, have trouble meeting basic needs for food, shelter, water, law, and order. No matter what the energy source – renewable, fossil or nuclear – it is useless without a transmission system to carry it to where it is needed.
Our electric grid system is old, overloaded and in serious need of modernization just to meet today’s needs. The viability of wind and solar power as future mainstream energy sources to displace fossil fuel generators depends first on a grid robust enough and smart enough to handle the supply.
Here’s an interesting perspective on the subject.
Grid Lock: New Transmission Lines Key for Clean Energy–And Coal
Wall Street Journal Blogs
Beefing up the nation’s electricity-transmission system to make renewable energy a reality could backfire and make coal an even more widespread source of energy source.
An interesting brand sidelight on the subject of the electricity grid: In the UK the nation’s integrated electricity system, known as the Central Electricity Generating Board, was broken up and privatized in 1990 under the so-called Thatcher revolution. The 12 local distribution companies, the generation assets and the national grid transmission system were individually sold to the public as standalone businesses. The high voltage transmission system across England and Wales become known as National Grid. Today, National Grid is operating successfully in the US through a few deft acquisitions in the northeast.
National our grid system is not, but National Grid the company is one of the more successful and entrepreneurial brands to emerge from what was a totally commoditized industry.
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Tags: electricity, energy brandings, power, renewable energy, smart grid
This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 9:19 am and is filed under Solar, Verticals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.