Introduction
Picture waking up in a massive urban landscape such as New York City, hundreds of floors up in the air and realizing that there is no power. Except that it is not just one building, everyone in the city and for miles around is without power. According to Massoud Amin, a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota, an event just like this occurred on August 14th, 2003, affecting Ohio, Michigan, the northeastern United States, and Ontario, Canada, leaving over 50 million people without power in merely eight minutes. Widespread power outages like this one are evidence of the failing power grid in the United States. Without necessary maintenance and adaptation to modern advances in technology, our electrical grid threatens to leave us in the dark with compounding issues such as climate change and the integration of renewable energies. Modernizing the existing power grid will require extensive urban planning and a significant investment in infrastructure by the United States government. Should the United States begin taking steps now to resolve deficiencies with the grid, there will be hope to prevent dangerous and catastrophic failures from occurring such as the event that began in Ohio. From its need to shift toward a renewable energy supply to the prevention of widespread power outages, the future of the power grid must use government-backed funding to modernize and put to use innovative technologies such as improved smart detection sensors, Tesla superchargers, renewable energy, and large-scale energy storage with batteries.
Background
The electrical grid is integral to everyday life functions because it distributes energy to nearly every home, industry, and service. Without the electrical grid, all businesses and homes without the individual capability to generate energy for personal use (like those with solar panels or generators) would be without power. Due to the wide array of tasks that require power and a rapidly increasing demand for power, there has been an increased load placed upon the power grid. “…progressively longer, higher-voltage lines to more efficiently deliver power from generation plants to customers located far away. These high-voltage lines also allow neighboring utilities to link their grids, thereby helping one another sustain a critical balance…” (Amin). High-voltage power lines have become necessary to meet high power demand, carry power over long distances, and supply power for varying applications across homes and businesses. Connecting these power lines allows for some level of redundancy should a line fail, but also places the linked parts of the grid at risk for widespread failure should a more serious fault occur. The power grid was not built to support providing this excessively high voltage.
Climate change extreme weather events like those that have recently occurred in Texas can lead to issues with the power grid. When power grids are built for an area, they are designed to handle weather predictable for that region, this could mean snow in North Dakota or hurricanes in Florida. Issues develop when extreme weather arises that is out of the ordinary. In an interview of Georgia Tech professor Emily Grubert by Noel King of NPR, it was revealed that this recently happened in Texas where Texans experienced an extreme snowstorm event that their power grid was not prepared to manage. Snow and extremely cold temperatures uncharacteristic of the region meant that the grid was not able to remain online. These extreme weather events are becoming more common across the United States. Changing weather patterns need to be accounted for as we look to the future for ways to make the power grid more reliable. Climate change will result in more frequent extreme weather events and the effect on the economy will be multiplied should mass power outages ensue. In addition to abating the effects of climate change, the future of the power grid should strive to address the fundamental causes of climate change.
Where We Are Now
Power grid failures have become increasingly prevalent and widespread in recent years. The failures are largely due to the ever-increasing demand that the power grid has to supply despite its design not supporting this cumulative level of load. Because of this stress, failures and other issues become more common and have a greater negative impact. According to Dolf Gielen of the International Renewable Energy Agency:
Bottlenecks or grid congestions may occur when the existing transmission and/or distribution lines, or transformers, are unable to accommodate all required load during periods of high demand -such as simultaneous charging of thousands of EV- or during emergency load conditions, such as when an adjacent line is taken out of service. (Gielen)
Any time that a part of the overloaded grid experiences failure, the result is that there is simply too much power being demanded than can be delivered with reduced infrastructure. Issues with high demand have been exacerbated by technologies such as electric cars that require excessive amounts of current on-demand to effectively charge them. With expectations of increased electronic goods and more electric vehicles, the grid must be replaced with one that can accommodate greater demand.
Understanding how crucial the power grid is to the effective function of the United States, many may wonder what is holding the country back from overhauling the grid. The main problem is that the cost to potentially replace the current power grid is astronomical and will likely require government funding. Should the United States make use of its ability to leverage salvageable aspects of electrical infrastructure, costs will still remain extreme. According to Business Insider writer Tsyetana Paraskova of Oilprice.com, “[The value of] power plants, wires, transformers and poles — stands at between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion. Defining the ‘grid’ as including power plants, transmission lines, distribution lines, substations, and transformers, Rhodes the replacement value of the U.S. electric grid is $4.8 trillion.” As it stands, our current grid is valued at a minimum of $1.5 trillion before renovation. After replacement to modernize and address the aged system, the total cost would likely be about $4.8 trillion. That is almost three times the value of the current grid. Raising that level of funding would take extensive bipartisan government cooperation and levy a substantial bill onUnited States taxpayers.
The Future
Implementation of smart grid power sensors is the next step toward preventing chained power outages. Currently, when one link in the power grid fails, energy needs to be diverted along the working lines. With the power grid already under higher-than-intended voltage, this greater demand can backload the system and cause widespread power outages unless power controllers take note and fix something. However, this chain of events can be difficult to repair. With the current system, the information that operators receive at central control stations is delayed a minimum of thirty seconds. Without rapid information, it can be too late to stop a cascade of power issues. A new power grid could be created to be responsive across nodes of communication. This technology would enable a self-healing smart grid that can reconfigure the flow of energy should problems arise (Amin). Smart grids are the ideal method to prevent issues with one part of the line causing a delay in the reaction that results in a chained power outage. Diverging energy automatically provides enough speed to fix the issue that humans cannot provide. Other benefits of this system could include protection from terrorist attacks on the power grid by containing the attack to a smaller area.
As previously stated, electric vehicles are creating an increased demand upon the electrical grid. The energy that was previously derived from gasoline now needs to be transferred over power lines. Tesla superchargers will enable the expansion of the power grid to support the increased use of electric vehicles. According to Sam Denby of Wendover Productions on YouTube, many consumers have found that normal A/C charging of their electric cars is not fast enough due to the built-in car inverter. Superchargers with their own inverters are preferred by consumers due to their ability to rapidly charge cars in less than the consumer demanded thirty-two minutes. Inverters found in superchargers are more efficient in energy conversion to where there will be less draw on power lines than if less energy were converted to the batteries. This results in faster charging and less wasted heat which helps decrease negative environmental impacts. With efficient electric vehicle charging and more consumer demand for electric vehicles with the ability to charge their cars faster, tying superconductors into the power grid will help manage current electric vehicle users and allow for more capacity in the future thereby benefiting the environment.
Besides the environmental benefits from electric vehicles, there has been a push for more renewable energy in the United States power grid. Renewable energies will eventually take over as the primary source of power leading. The issue with relying on renewable energy is a lack of consistent energy production. Recent reports have indicated that by the end of 2035 most fossil fuel plants will have reached the end of their lifespan. As these are replaced with renewable energy, industrial-scale energy storage will be paramount. A Bloomberg NEF renewable power systems specialist Yiyi Zhou has stated that renewable energy combined with battery storage is already economically viable as an alternative to new gas peaker plants (Katz). Gas peaker plants are production plants that have to kick on during peak energy use hours to meet demand. Besides being the most environmentally degrading, these plants are also expensive. “By smoothing imbalances between supply and demand, proponents say, batteries can replace fossil fuel “peaker” plants that kick in for a few hours a day when energy demands soar” (Katz). Sitting idle for most of the day and not only providing “dirty” energy when needed makes peaker plants an obvious candidate for replacement. A solution in the short term is to have renewable energy charge massive battery power banks. These banks can then be tapped into by the power grid when needed during peak hours. In the long-term, this same technology can make renewable energy a viable option for all energy since solar during the day and wind farms when it is windy will store energy in batteries for use when conditions for energy production are not met.
Connecting the Dots
As the timeline toward total failure of the power grid rapidly approaches, it is important that the United States takes the first steps towards modernizing and replacing the aged and faulty grid with one that solves the current shortcomings and creates a more sustainable and technologically sound future. While replacement of the grid will be an expensive and protracted process, it is necessary as climate change and power outages become increasing concerns. As the United States replaces the grid, scientists must look toward the goals of implementing smart detection sensors, Tesla superchargers, renewable energy, and large-scale energy storage with batteries. Should the urgency of this change be recognized and the government provide needed funding, the future of the power grid should be both sustainable and safe.
Bibliography
Amin, Massoud, and Phillip Schewe. “Preventing Blackouts: Building a Smarter Power Grid.” Scientific American, 14 Aug. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/preventing-blackouts-power-grid. Accessed 1 Apr. 2021
Denby, Sam. “The Electric Vehicle Charging Problem.” YouTube, uploaded by Wendover Productions, 9 Feb. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLcqJ2DclEg. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021.
Gielen, Dolf, et al. “The Role of Renewable Energy in the Global Energy Transformation.” Energy Strategy Reviews, vol. 24, 2019, pp. 38–50., doi:10.1016/j.esr.2019.01.006. Accessed 5 Apr. 2021.
Katz, Cheryl. “In Boost for Renewables, Grid-Scale Battery Storage Is on the Rise.” Yale Environment 360, 15 Dec. 2020, e360.yale.edu/features/in-boost-for-renewables-grid-scale-battery-storage-is-on-the-rise. Accessed 4 Apr. 2021.
King, Noel, and Emily Grubert. “What Went Wrong With The Electric Grid In Texas?” NPR, 17 Feb. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/02/17/968577281/what-went-wrong-with-the-electric-grid-in-texas. Accessed 2 Apr. 2021.
Paraskova, Tsvetana. “Replacing the US electric grid could cost $5 trillion.” BusinessInsider, 25 Mar. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/replacing-the-us-electric-grid-could-cost-5-trillion-2017-3. Accessed 4 Apr. 2021.