Solar Energy Show

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon I’m sure you’ve noticed that the reliability of our electric grid is getting worse -- not better. In spite of new utility generation, transmission and monitoring technologies, blackouts and Public Safety Power Shutoffs are more common. There are more power outages, and these outages last longer. In the “old days” about 20 years ago when the power went out we still had wired phone lines, we could throw a few logs in the fireplace, and we could go to the gas station to top off our tank. Now, without reliable electricity, our communications, entertainment, heating and cooling, and transportation are all as useless as a chocolate teapot. I came across a recent report from E3, an electric grid consulting company, that summarized six trends that they say are making the grid’s reliability worse: 1) More customers and more electric demand 2) Retirement of coal and gas plants 3) Increasing dependency on renewables, storage and distributed resources 4) Increasingly e