More evidence that a smart grid is essential

We've already seen that power transmissions between states have low redundancy. Regional power transfers come down to a few critical links which can reach capacity, and can be knocked out when they are needed most. Does Enron and the 2001 California blackouts ring a bell here? Enron's blatant market manipulation took advantage of "deregulation" and a hot spring/summer along the Pacific coast to maximize their bottom line, but at the expense of power consumers. Add forest fires, people's willingness to pay for a utility/necessity and you have a "perfect storm" to gouge consumers to the hilt. Enron effectively set the cost per kilowatt on a daily basis. This worked (for a while) to pad Enron's bottom line, but eventually, the bottom fell out and along with the collapse, the truth came out: the blackouts had been artificially created, essentially a giant hoax perpetrated on the nation.

Almost ten years later, that same power grid is tied together in the same way. It is not up to transmitting power from decentralized sources from green energy. It's ironic that wind/solar farms have to be shutdown when demand is highest because there is insufficient power transmission capacity.

Here is Slashdot's headline.

p.s. This was an interesting broadcast about the aging power grid. Make sure to check the interactive graphic on that page. Note: this was a followup to story which appeared in National Geographic, here.