Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Gretchen Bakke Interviews

I recently heard a couple of interviews with anthropologist Gretchen Bakke (pronounced "BAKE-ee") regarding her book, The Grid : The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future (2016). I've not read the book, but I've added it to my reading list.

The book is about "the grid," which is a slang term for the United States electricity distribution system. In the interviews, Bakke talks about the challenges facing America's energy infrastructure, from aging equipment to the difficulty of going from a system of centralized power generation to a more distributed system. I found the interviews both interesting and frightening.

In her book, Bakke explains both the history and the details of how the electrical power grid works. Bakke then discusses the prospects for its future. Bakke talks about the complexities involved with the introduction of renewable and alternative sources of power into a grid that has evolved over the years based on a concept of regulated utilities with a large central source of power generation. Here are some bits I picked up from the interviews.
  • The continental United States electrical grid system is actually made of three grids: The eastern U.S. grid, the western U.S. grid, and the Texas grid.
  • In general, the electrical utilities do not have a large-scale method of storing electricity (no large reservoirs of batteries or capacitors, etc.). Electrical power must be used as it is generated, or it is lost. And there is no anticipated technological break through on the horizon that's going to change this situation. 
  • Large-scale installation of solar and wind generation will not allow coal and gas powered generation to go away any time soon, because the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow.
  • While an excess of generated electricity may seem like a good thing to the customer, it is a dangerous thing to the utility company. If the utility doesn't have a place to send the excess electricity, it could overload the grid, causing sections to automatically shut down, or be manually shut down, to prevent the network from being burned out. Imagine: A power outage caused by an excess of electricity! It has happened more than once in recent history.

I encourage you to check out these interviews. And, if you are interested in reading further, I've also included links to the book.

Interviews:



Find the book on:



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