EP 953 Should We Be Concerned About the Reliability of the Electrical Grid?

 Do you think very often, if at all, how it is that when you turn on a light switch in your home, instantly there is light.  Given that there are so many factors upstream from your home–generating the power, transmitting it, distributing it and, finally, consuming it, the whole thing is pretty miraculous. And we’ve heard time and again that there is always a fragility to it.  We have aging infrastructure, increasing demand (never more so than now with the oncoming data centers for AI), cybersecurity threats, climate change impacts and the integration of renewable energy sources.  And it’s all driven by 11,000 power plants, 3,000 utilities, and more than 2 million miles of power lines.  In 2016, a great book which I’ve kept on my shelf at home, came out.  It was titled “The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future” and was written by Gretchen Bakke, PhD, explaining the history and current (no pun intended) status of the grid.  I interviewed her ten years ago on radio and thought it was time to update that important discussion.  So here it is.

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