WHAT IS IT? The national power grid
An increase in severe weather events, attacks on power plants, and the drive for green energy highlight the importance of a resilient national power grid.
Historic weather events, cyberattacks, and even physical attacks on power plants have raised concerns about the vulnerability of the nation’s power grid.
But what exactly is the network, and how resilient is it against threats of all kinds?
More than five million miles of power lines carry electricity from power generators to customers across the country.
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The grid is made up of power generators, such as dams, coal plants or wind turbines, and more than five million miles of power lines that carry electricity across the country, according to EPRI’s vice president of integrated grid and power systems, a non-profit research and development institute.
“All of that is working together to ensure that when you flip the switch in your house, the light comes on at that moment,” said Daniel Brooks. “So it’s quite complicated.”
Overall, the network is “extremely reliable,” he said. But with more of the United States electrified than at any time in history, the network also faces more threats.
“We’ve seen an increasing number of what people would call a one-in-100-year type of event,” Brooks told Fox News.
Extreme weather events, such as the record-breaking California wildfires, hurricanes and powerful winter storms, have become more important considerations for network planners, Brooks said. But the weather is not the only concern.
WHAT IS IT? THE NATIONAL ELECTRICAL NETWORK:
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“There are bad guys out there who would like to be able to take advantage of vulnerabilities they might find with cyber or maybe physical security,” Brooks said.
Gunshots erupted this week at a substation in Randolph County, North Carolina. While it didn’t cause any outages, it comes less than two months after more than 40,000 power customers in North Carolina were left in the dark after someone shot at two substations.
On Christmas morning, vandals attacked four substations in Washington, knocking out power to some 15,000 customers. Pundits and activists soon speculated whether the increase in attacks on power plants could be the work of “right-wing extremists”.
The motive in both North Carolina cases is unknown and no one has been arrested. But the men now tasked with attacking substations in Washington allegedly planned to commit a robbery while the power was out.
“Those are not the normal events through which we design and operate the network,” Brooks said.
But network planners “really want to avoid any type of event that could result in a long-term outage,” which could threaten people’s health and safety, he added.
Transmission towers have become increasingly stiff against the winds, he said. Some power lines are designed so that if a tree limb falls on them, the lines break off the pole instead of dragging the entire pole down, which would take much longer to fix.
“Part of resiliency is making sure we don’t have those long duration outages by putting systems in place that allow us to recover quickly,” he said.
The North American electrical grid is made up of three main interconnections. One grid covers the western US and Canada, another covers most of Texas, and a third covers the eastern part of the continent.
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The national power grid is actually made up of three loosely connected regions. That’s good news when it comes to resiliency because it means that if there’s a serious problem in the western interconnect, the eastern US should be fine, Brooks said.
“A problem that’s starting to happen and hopefully never cascading into a complete blackout, that wouldn’t go beyond those individual networks,” he said.
A diverse array of power sources is also key to grid resiliency, Brooks said. Solar power can work well during the day, but the benefits fade when the sun does, so other resources like nuclear, gas or coal could take over.
“The key is to make sure you understand how everyone is performing in the context of the needs of the system,” he said. “Strength, Affordability, Reliability, Sustainability.”
Shortly after taking office, President Biden pledged to bring the US economy to “net zero” by 2050. The administration halted new oil and natural gas leases on public lands, among other actions aimed at promoting “green” energy sources. “. A recent report from an energy watchdog found that some utilities have phased out existing fossil fuel power generation before there were enough alternatives, potentially leading to supply shortages.
Ambitious decarbonization targets change the way energy experts plan for the future.
The power sector currently meets about 20% of the country’s energy needs, but expert Daniel Brooks says that number will likely rise to 40-60% by 2050 to meet President Biden’s decarbonization goals.
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“Our models basically show that for that to happen, the cheapest avenues are for the power grid to be used to help decarbonise the other energy sectors,” Brooks said.
The power sector currently covers about 20% of US energy needs, but models show that number will rise to 60% by 2050 to meet the Biden administration’s goals, Brooks said. That means electrifying transportation, industry, business operations, and homes.
“The grid is going to be more and more important as we go on,” Brooks said. “We’re going to have to continue to work together, to innovate, to invest to make sure that we have those resources that are available for the network to provide us with what we need.”
Ramiro Vargas contributed to the attached video.
