Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System
Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-10-25

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 0309463076

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Americans' safety, productivity, comfort, and convenience depend on the reliable supply of electric power. The electric power system is a complex "cyber-physical" system composed of a network of millions of components spread out across the continent. These components are owned, operated, and regulated by thousands of different entities. Power system operators work hard to assure safe and reliable service, but large outages occasionally happen. Given the nature of the system, there is simply no way that outages can be completely avoided, no matter how much time and money is devoted to such an effort. The system's reliability and resilience can be improved but never made perfect. Thus, system owners, operators, and regulators must prioritize their investments based on potential benefits. Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System focuses on identifying, developing, and implementing strategies to increase the power system's resilience in the face of events that can cause large-area, long-duration outages: blackouts that extend over multiple service areas and last several days or longer. Resilience is not just about lessening the likelihood that these outages will occur. It is also about limiting the scope and impact of outages when they do occur, restoring power rapidly afterwards, and learning from these experiences to better deal with events in the future.

Lights Out
Lights Out

Author: Ted Koppel

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 055341996X

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A nation unprepared : surviving the aftermath of a blackout where tens of millions of people over several states are affected.

On the Grid
On the Grid

Author: Scott Huler

Publisher: Rodale

Published: 2010-05-11

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1605296473

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Investigates the systems of infrastructure that sustain the world and the cultures of historical periods, following various elements, from electricity and pavement to water and waste disposal, back to their origins and people who operate them.

The Grid
The Grid

Author: Phillip F. Schewe

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2007-02-20

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 030910260X

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The electrical grid goes everywhere-it's the largest and most complex machine ever made. Yet the system is built in such a way that the bigger it gets, the more inevitable its collapse. Named the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century by the National Academy of Engineering, the electrical grid is the largest industrial investment in the history of humankind. It reaches into your home, snakes its way to your bedroom, and climbs right up into the lamp next to your pillow. At times, it almost seems alive, like some enormous circulatory system that pumps life to big cities and the most remote rural areas. Constructed of intricately interdependent components, the grid operates on a rapidly shrinking margin for error. Things can-and do-go wrong in this system, no matter how many preventive steps we take. Just look at the colossal 2003 blackout, when 50 million Americans lost power due to a simple error at a power plant in Ohio; or the one a month later, which blacked out 57 million Italians. And these two combined don't even compare to the 2001 outage in India, which affected 226 million people. The Grid is the first history of the electrical grid intended for general readers, and it comes at a time when we badly need such a guide. As we get more and more dependent on electricity to perform even the most mundane daily tasks, the grid's inevitable shortcomings will take a toll on populations around the globe. At a moment when energy issues loom large on the nation's agenda and our hunger for electricity grows, The Grid is as timely as it is compelling.

Renewable Electricity and the Grid
Renewable Electricity and the Grid

Author: Godfrey Boyle

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-05-04

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1136558756

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Integrating intermittent renewable energy sources like wind into electricity systems must be one of the most misunderstood issues in energy policy. This edited volume brings together a unique series of authoritative articles on the topic. There should be no excuse for misunderstanding from now on. JIM SKEA, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, UK ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE The future design and operation of electric power systems with large injections of renewable energy generation is the subject of much debate, and some misunderstanding. This timely book, from a number of authors with expertise in the area, makes an important contribution to our understanding of this topic. NICK JENKINS, PROFESSOR OF ENERGY SYSTEMS, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER We know the future will be different from the past. This book predicts how large proportions of renewable energy can be incorporated into electricity grids, without harm from the natural variability of these supplies. The chapter authors have different approaches and vision, yet the overall message is positive. Not only can we move to dominant use of renewable electricity, but we can do so utilizing many technological and efficiency improvements, with consumers benefiting from clean electricity at acceptable cost. PROFESSOR JOHN TWIDELL, GENERAL EDITOR, WIND ENGINEERING 'Anyone interested in renewable electricity will find this book an important reference. It answers many of teh questions so often raised in public debates' Sherkin Comment Can renewable energy provide reliable power? Will it need extensive backup? The energy available from wind, waves, tides and the sun varies in ways that may not match variations in energy demand. Assimilating these fluctuations can affect the operation and economics of electricity networks, markets and the output of other forms of generation. Is this a significant problem, or can these new sources be integrated into the grid system without the need for extensive backup or energy storage capacity? This book examines the significance of the issue of variability of renewable electricity supplies, and presents technical and operational solutions to the problem of reconciling the differing patterns of supply and demand. Its chapters are authored by leading experts in the field, who aim to explain and quantify the impacts of variability in renewable energy, and in doing so, dispel many of the myths and misunderstandings surrounding the topic.

The Grid
The Grid

Author: Gretchen Bakke

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2017-07-11

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1632865688

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A revelatory look at our national power grid--how it developed, its current flaws, and how it must be completely reimagined for our fast-approaching energy future. America's electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor fit for the present. It's not just that the grid has grown old and is now in dire need of basic repair. Today, as we invest great hope in new energy sources--solar, wind, and other alternatives--the grid is what stands most firmly in the way of a brighter energy future. If we hope to realize this future, we need to reimagine the grid according to twenty-first-century values. It's a project which forces visionaries to work with bureaucrats, legislators with storm-flattened communities, moneymen with hippies, and the left with the right. And though it might not yet be obvious, this revolution is already well under way. Cultural anthropologist Gretchen Bakke unveils the many facets of America's energy infrastructure, its most dynamic moments and its most stable ones, and its essential role in personal and national life. The grid, she argues, is an essentially American artifact, one which developed with us: a product of bold expansion, the occasional foolhardy vision, some genius technologies, and constant improvisation. Most of all, her focus is on how Americans are changing the grid right now, sometimes with gumption and big dreams and sometimes with legislation or the brandishing of guns. The Grid tells--entertainingly, perceptively--the story of what has been called "the largest machine in the world": its fascinating history, its problematic present, and its potential role in a brighter, cleaner future.

Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid
Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid

Author: National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine

Publisher:

Published: 2021-11-17

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780309685382

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Fusion energy offers the prospect of addressing the nation's energy needs and contributing to the transition to a low-carbon emission electrical generation infrastructure. Technology and research results from U.S. investments in the major fusion burning plasma experiment known as ITER, coupled with a strong foundation of research funded by the Department of Energy (DOE), position the United States to begin planning for its first fusion pilot plant. Strong interest from the private sector is an additional motivating factor, as the process of decarbonizing and modernizing the nation's electric infrastructure accelerates and companies seek to lead the way. At the request of DOE, Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid builds upon the work of the 2019 report Final Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research to identify the key goals and innovations - independent of confinement concept - that are needed to support the development of a U.S. fusion pilot plant that can serve as a model for producing electricity at the lowest possible capital cost.