WEBVTT

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<v ->The US power grid is under growing scrutiny.</v>

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Unpredictable weather patterns, security threats,

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and our ever-increasing usage of electricity

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demand that the power systems in place now

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emphasize resilience in the future.

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(gentle music)

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Resilience is vitally important

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when it comes to complex systems.

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The recent failure of the Texas power grid

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tragically underscored this point.

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Texas, a typically warm state with mild winters,

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was hit by a major February storm.

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Electrical load spiked as heaters were cranked up.

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Historically cold temperatures caused

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generating capacity to go offline.

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Natural gas wells and associated transportation

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pipelines froze, halting 50% of the state's production.

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Nuclear and coal power plants went down,

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and wind turbines stopped turning.

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The debacle in Texas illustrates how

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market mechanisms that enable low cost

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and flexible power generation delivery

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in normal times can become a critical

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point of failure under extreme circumstances.

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We need to build more resilience

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into our power grid by emphasizing

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an essential quality of connected systems:

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prudence, sound planning for the worst case scenario.

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Utilities and system operators have to assess

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their commercial models and contracting decisions

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to ensure enough sources of generation are available,

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even in times of great stress.

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This requires winterization, more spare capacity,

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and planning for a diverse mix of generation sources

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and grid interconnections.

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It means investing in resilience throughout the network.

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As we've seen, failing to employ resilience

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in any system can leave a lot of people out in the cold.

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(gentle music)