Simultaneously, another EEI spokesman, Bill Brier, was putting out a more conciliatory line, one that would eventually prevail in legislation. The Institute recognized the utility companies’ obligation to keep the electricity flowing, he told the Boston Globe, and “still favors deregulation, but does support legislation that impose[s] mandatory rules on power companies to fulfill their obligations on the energy grid.” These reliability rules were enacted in 2005, and with million-dollar fines looming over them, the utility companies are now improving the reliability of the network.
But they want us to pay for it. And the basic problems are still there. Of the energy used to generate electricity (in fossil fuel or nuclear power plants), only thirty-one percent actually makes it all the way to homes, offices, and factories. Part is lost in the process of producing the electricity, and the rest as it whizzes around the country along the power lines. When this loss of
power is added to the inefficiencies of older appliances and factories that consume electricity, usable energy can drop to as low as twelve percent. The fact that we now have a hugely inefficient production and distribution process, not to mention grotesque rates of energy consumption, suggests that this ramshackle system probably should never have been invented in the first
place.
Two days after the blackout, as normal service was gradually restored, the EEI was telling the New York Times, “Right now we have a highway to transmit power. We need a superhighway.”
Yet another EEI spinner, Jim Owen, went on NPR radio. “We’ve been saying for some time that we do need to expand and upgrade our transmission capacity in most parts of the country,” he told them, “basically to meet what is an everincreasing demand for electric power.”
But why should there be an “ever-increasing demand”? What rule of nature dictates that electricity use can only ever go up, especially during a recession? And what is this demand anyway?
How has it grown so large? Never mind all the environmental issues—surely on economic grounds alone more could have been done to make our lives more energy efficient.
It took me months to find anyone who was questioning the grid in the ways I was.
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3 Responses
“Howes stressed the importance of the local community and the employment of domestic staff.”
Perhaps electrical power was seen as a savior by those householder who couldn’t afford domestic staff? The electrical appliances, and the power to operate had a cost, but one less than hired help. Point being that electrical power, and the appliances that consumed the power most likely weren’t a hard sell to those who could afford them. We today probably can’t appreciate the change electrical power repented in the daily live of many.
I see again a comment associating terrorist attack & decentralization. Large population centers will be the target of choice for terrorists When/if their localized power generation is destroyed. Power from the grid will be that return there lives back to normal. That should be the case if the conversation doesn’t turn from lambasting the grid to improving it. The citizens of japan have learned how important electrical power is to modern life. They experienced a situation where those off-grid, or on localized generation wouldn’t have fared any better than those on the grid
It makes no more sense to push electricity hundreds of miles using dangerously high voltages that is does to send water through hundreds of miles of pipeline. This is lunacy, sheer utter lunacy when solar and wind power can easily provide our electric power.
What about more efficient electric motors that can run our electric gadgets on 12 or 24 volt power? What about developing more efficient light sources (LED is still expensive, but it needn’t remain so)
What about all the overunity devices which are mysteriously pulled from YouTube for “Terms of Use Violations”?
The best defense against terrorist attacks on our electric power distribution is DECENTRALIZATION.
If the power I pay for is so good, why do my electronic sewing and knitting machines, my computer, and my TV all require not just surge suppressors, but power cleaning surge suppressors to smooth out the spikes and optimize their functioning?
There is a hidden agenda which we are being told doesn’t exist. Our public fool systems are teaching our children to not ask questions. Wake up!
Wow! Men, that was some short article of just 9 pages :) . Is appreciated. Great Info. Thank you