American Electrical Grid Not Designed To Withstand Impacts Of Climate Breakdown

[hatrack]

As heat ramps up ahead of what forecasters say will be a hotter than normal summer, electricity experts and officials are warning that states may not have enough power to meet demand in the coming months. And many of the nation’s grid operators are also not taking climate change into account in their planning, even as extreme weather becomes more frequent and more severe. All of this suggests that more power outages are on the way, not only this summer but in the coming years as well.

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“The reality is the electricity system is old and a lot of the infrastructure was built before we started thinking about climate change,” said Romany Webb, a researcher at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. “It’s not designed to withstand the impacts of climate change.” Webb says many power grid operators use historical weather to make investment decisions, rather than the more dire climate projections, simply because they want to avoid the possibility of financial loss for investing in what might happen versus what has already happened. She said it’s the wrong approach and it makes the grid vulnerable.

“We have seen a reluctance on the part of many utilities to factor climate change into their planning processes because they say the science around climate change is too uncertain,” Webb said. “The reality is we know climate change is happening, we know the impact it has in terms of more severe heatwaves, hurricanes, drought, and we know that all of those things affect the electricity system so ignoring those impacts just makes the problems worse.”

An early heatwave knocked six power plants offline in Texas earlier this month. Residents were asked to limit electricity use, keeping thermostats at 78 degrees or higher and avoid using large appliances at peak times. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, in its seasonal reliability report, said the state’s power grid is prepared for the summer and has “sufficient” power for “normal” summer conditions, based on average weather from 2006 to 2020. But NOAA’s recently released summer outlook forecasts above average temperatures for every county in the nation. “We are continuing to design and site facilities based on historical weather patterns that we know in the age of climate change are not a good proxy for future conditions,” Webb told CNN.

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https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/31/us/power-outages-electric-grid-climate-change/index.html

[global1]

1. And They Want Me To Buy & Drive An Electric Car......nt

[jpak]

2. Two words

Oil Embargo

[progree]

3. And we're spending $billions on Level 2 chargers that are totally worthless

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/12/18/npr-electric-cars-charging-network-white-house-harris

Despite the progress in increasing the number of chargers, all chargers are not created equal. While the $7.5 billion plan is a historic investment in the future of electric cars, the number is half of what the administration had originally proposed for the same number of chargers.

That means that rather than installing Level 3 operating chargers that can nearly fully replenish a car's battery in anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, the administration will likely implement more Level 2 chargers — like the kind usually found usually found at homes and office buildings — that can take upwards of 20 hours to fully juice one.

The price tag for Level 2 chargers rings in at a few thousand dollars, whereas Level 3 chargers are 50 to 100 times as expensive, according to The Verge.

Level 2 chargers are fine in the garage to charge a vehicle overnight, but I am fundamentally completely, and I am fundamentally totalling incapable of fathoming how they can be useful at all on the road (at gas stations etc.). Have to wait an hour to maybe add 20 miles of range?

[Midnight Writer]

4. An inherent weakness of capitalism. Cutting costs and cutting corners are the norm.

It will be up to the taxpayers to eventually bail out the "too big too fail" utilities, and those responsible will whistle all the way to the bank.