-: The US power grid is under growing scrutiny.
Unpredictable weather patterns, security threats,
and our ever-increasing usage of electricity
demand that the power systems in place now
emphasize resilience in the future.
(gentle music)
Resilience is vitally important
when it comes to complex systems.
The recent failure of the Texas power grid
tragically underscored this point.
Texas, a typically warm state with mild winters,
was hit by a major February storm.
Electrical load spiked as heaters were cranked up.
Historically cold temperatures caused
generating capacity to go offline.
Natural gas wells and associated transportation
pipelines froze, halting 50% of the state's production.
Nuclear and coal power plants went down,
and wind turbines stopped turning.
The debacle in Texas illustrates how
market mechanisms that enable low cost
and flexible power generation delivery
in normal times can become a critical
point of failure under extreme circumstances.
We need to build more resilience
into our power grid by emphasizing
an essential quality of connected systems:
prudence, sound planning for the worst case scenario.
Utilities and system operators have to assess
their commercial models and contracting decisions
to ensure enough sources of generation are available,
even in times of great stress.
This requires winterization, more spare capacity,
and planning for a diverse mix of generation sources
and grid interconnections.
It means investing in resilience throughout the network.
As we've seen, failing to employ resilience
in any system can leave a lot of people out in the cold.
(gentle music)