The Grid - Gretchen Bakke

[Saluki]

I started this book a few years ago and never got around to finishing it until now. It's a really interesting book because most of us, including me, know nothing about how the system works that brings power to our houses even though we are increasingly reliant on more electricity and the system delivering it is older and not well equipped for the needs of society. 

 

Even before climate change started making things worse, the grid wasn't well equipped. In the US about 30% of generation capacity (usually the oldest and least efficient power plants ) were available as stand by power for peak times when needed. Now it's about 10%. 

 

And the system was designed for large generators putting out lots of power from a central place. Wind and consumer solar putting energy into the wires at different dispersed points at unpredictable times and in unpredictable amounts is not what the system was designed for. 

 

No money for investing in the grid either because the money is made on the generating side. Utilities fight against renewables like solar because they want homeowners to buy power from them, not sell it. If they have to buy power at times they don't need it,  then they become the backup power. As people leave the buying system, the remaining customers have to pay more which encourages them to install solar too, creating a death spiral.

 

Ironically we are moving to micro grids for reliability, which is what the power system looked like in the early days of electric. People had small, local generation and the power did not travel far.  

 

An interesting book about a topic that there isn't a lot of stuff written about. 

[InelegantInvestor]

Fascinating book. I would love to see a small utility(say MCPB) become a model for smart grid.