DALL-E/Every illustration.

America’s Electrical Grid Is an Incredible Feat of Engineering—And Its Biggest Bottleneck

Here’s what it’ll take to modernize the country’s power grid

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@gabriel.galanski almost 2 years ago

Great article. Would like to have seen a discussion of the LCOE for generation methodologies, impact of regulatory barriers and subsidies. Liked that you touched on base load generation, one of the key issues to be solved is replacing hydrocarbon base load gen with either renewables, which requires development of new battery technology, or nuclear, which requires regulatory change. Grid connected storage could fundamentally change the peaker market. Also important to understand that there isn’t one grid, but multiple (ISO-NE, PGM, ERCOT, et al) and that cross connections are very challenging. Sorry to ramble but I’m on a train not writing a white paper!

Dan Shipper almost 2 years ago

@gabriel.galanski thanks Gabe! really glad you liked it. I've shared your comment with Anna-Sofia, I really appreciate you leaving it :)

Great article!

Dan Shipper almost 2 years ago

@boywonderdesigns glad you liked it!

@arnabdas2860 almost 2 years ago

Interesting

@halinkpt almost 2 years ago

Basic information. Non political but practical.

@collendar almost 2 years ago

Great article and great information. Some additional information:
Home solar has the potential for providing distributed power right where it is most needed to charge EV’s and run air conditioners during the day. It also takes a load off the step-up, high tension transmission, step down, local distribution system by bypassing it altogether. Any excess energy ends up transferring directly to neighbors. Unfortunately, PG&E in California has just rendered home solar economically non viable as of April 15, 2023. Before that homeowners received 30-40 cents per KWh for energy exported to the grid and paid the same for energy imported from the grid. Now homeowners receive 3-4 cents per KWh for exported energy while still paying 30-40 cents per KWh for imported energy. That means there is no longer any way for home owners to recover the $20k-30k costs of a home solar system installation. No rational homeowner looking past the slick presentations at the real costs would elect to install a solar system now.
Batteries are currently more expensive than PG&E. Consumer prices for batteries to store rooftop solar and power EV’s cost about $600 per KWh hardware and installation. A typical battery is capable of about 300-500 cycles. Even doubling that to 1000 cycles results in a cost of about 60 cents for each KWh stored over the life of the battery. That makes it cheaper to buy the energy from PG&E than store it. So batteries are presently only economically useful off grid. Or essential in rural areas as an insurance policy for powering the lights, refrigerators, and wells during blackouts, particularly during blackout during wildfires when water is critical to defend the home.
So using batteries for storage and arbitrage of home solar energy won’t make any sense for a long time. And home solar is installation is likely to grind to a halt in California, except for the 4 KW systems mandated by code in new construction.

@thomasrepik2799 almost 2 years ago

Well written! What is the status of improving electrical transmission capability via replacing existing conductors with high tech designs capable of carrying more current? The designs exist, and would allow increased capacity using existing infrastructure (i.e., current rights of way, towers, etc.). This has been a tested and proven improvement but not sure why it hasn't been pursued on a large scale.

@turnbullr67 almost 2 years ago

Wasn't aware of how much legislation and red tape was holding up modernizing the grid.