| Last week I wrote about an alternative
power source, wind power. I believe that we need to be pursuing
this and other alternative power sources so that we can reduce
our dependency upon foreign oil sources.
But there is another problem that we need to
address. Our power grid, now over 55 years old, is in dire need
of an upgrade to keep up with the increasing demand for electricity.
If we could make the switch from gasoline to electric cars now,
it is doubtful that our power grid could keep up with so much
more demand without increasing the capacity and reliability
of our power grid.
According to the National Science Academy, from
1993 to 2003, electrical demand grew by 35 percent, but power
capacity only grew by 18 percent.
The most recent power grid failure occurred
barely one year ago when lightning knocked out a power station
on the United States side of the Niagra River. The failure of
that station quickly cascaded, causin massive power failures
throughout the Northeast, from the eastern coast to as far away
as Cleveland, Ohio and as far north as Toronto. Ten nuclear
power stations were forced down in the process, as well as other
power sources. About 9,300 square miles was affected by the
blackout, cutting off power to about 50 million people.
The public takes electricity for granted, and
was basically unaware of the fragile nature of our power grid
until last year’s massive blackout. For the most part, they
are still unaware. But scientists and engineers have known about
this problem for many years.
In the May-June 2000 issue of the American Scientist
magazine, Thomas J. Overbye, an associate professor of electrical
and computer engineering at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana
campus) was quoted to have said, “The reliability of America's
power grid, which has to date been unequaled anywhere in the
world, is increasingly at risk… highly interconnected to assure
a power supply and predictable prices even when major components
fail or demand soars, the electric network is governed by the
laws of physics as much as economics. No part of the grid is
sheltered from changes or failures in other parts…”.
The power grid for all of North America is,
for the most part, one big circuit whose greatest strength is
also its biggest weakness. Its strength comes from having all
generators providing power to the grid, so that if one goes
out, the others can pick up the load.
However, its weakness was demonstrated in the
blackout last year. When one component fails, it can trigger
failures in other components over vast areas at nearly the speed
of light.
Last year’s failure was not the first. There
was a massive blackout in 1965 in the Northeast that affected
30 million people. There were also blackouts in the Western
US in 1994 and 1996, and another in the Eastern US in 1999.
Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who
served as the energy secretary in the Clinton administration,
said that “despite being a superpower, we have a grid that is
comparable to a third world country”.
Deregulation in the 1990’s created incentives
fo power companies to build additional power plants and to upgrade
their systems, but few power companies have taken advantage
of the incentives. The cost of making the improvements simply
isn’t profitable.
What this all means is that we can expect for
more failures to occur as more demand is placed upon the grid
and as the grid components continue to age.
For homeowners, churches and businesses, this
means that to keep the power on, they must take responsibility
for providing their own power during those down times.
The market has recognized this need and is responding.
Emergency generators are now widely available (or at least were
until the hurricanes hit Florida), and can be purchased at building
supply stores. The cost of the generators depend upon the power
output, so there is a wide range of generators that are affordable
for homeowners, churches and small businesses.
The generators are designed to turn on automatically
after the power has been out for a period of a few seconds,
and are fueled by propane or natural gas. They are also programmed
to turn on periodically to verify that they are in running order.
These are not the kind of units that should
be used as a primary source of electricity. Their greatest value
is that they will allow your home, business or church to continue
operations during the inevitable power failures.
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