Just like we need fat pipes (actually fiber optic lines) to transmit massive volumes of Internet and voice traffic long across long distances, we also need high tension wires to transmit volumes of power across the nation.   As America adds more capacity to the grid (hopefully more clean energy than coal fired) we need to update our grid of high tension wires to increase efficiency, capacity and safety.

The high voltage used for Direct Current (DC) electricity in these wires is used to reduce the resistance and loss during energy transmission.  DC lines transmit electricity in only one direction, but are able to transmit electricity over longer distances with lower loss rates (about 3% per 1000 kilometers)  than Alternating Current (AC) transmission lines, which is bi-directional and used for lower voltage applications like delivery of electricity to homes and businesses.

Direct current high voltage wires were invented and first used in Sweden and is used extensively across America to transmit electricity across its 3 regional grids (Western, Texas, and Eastern) that are actually owned by 500 separate power companies.  If there was ever a time where we needed the leadership of the federal government to build a cohesive network, this is it. 

The US Department of Energy and American Electric Power utility proposed a $60 billion natonal network of 765 kilowatt lines.   Of the 22,000 miles of high capacity lines required, today we have about 3,000.  New green sources of energy like wind farms, solar power and hydropower will increase the demands on our current aging infrastructure. 

Hopefully, a good chunk of the recovery package money will be invested here, as this will provide an outstanding return on investment.   In a much small scale case study, an investment of $336 million to build 20 miles of new high voltage lines saved $150 million in the very first year of operation.   While it may be a reach to expect such a quick return on investment for a project on a national scale it is clear that  America needs a vastly improved high capacity infrastructure to support green energy as well as to help power the country’s economy and growth for years to come.

I would be remiss if I did not address the safety issues of building out this infrastructure.  There are concerns about public health for people that live under high tension wires.  While some studies show it should not be an issue, other studies have shown a higher than normal incidence of cancer and leukemia for people that lived under these lines.   Burying the lines may not be a good option as these vital lines would constantly be at risk of being severed by by back hoes and the like.   Perhaps the best option would be to relocate people with homes directly under these lines.

Source: Scientific American Article by Matthew Wald

America’s electrical grid has roots going back to Thomas Edison’s company, Edison Electric Light, which was founded in 1880.   Copying the business model established by Edison, America’s power grid grew organically with states establishing a utility to provide power to residential and business power consumers.  The utilities built and owed the entire infrastructure from the power plants that generated electricity to the transmission lines that carried it to substations and the wires that distributed the power to end users.

Any time the utilities needed more power the solution was clear: Build a new coal-fired plant and connect it to the grid. Over time utilities connected to one another to help provide backup for each other. However, since there was no competition and there was an abundant supply of cheap coal to burn, there was little incentive for the utilties to build an efficient infrastructure.

All this continued until the energy crisis in 1978 when Congress forced the utilities to buy electricity from independent power generation companies that met efficiency goals. Now utilities started buying electricity from sources, sometimes thousands of miles away. The grid was not designed to handle this additional load and a new type of interdependence emerged where an outage in one area could impact millions of people in another state.

Although the utilities needed these vital links between the systems, none of the utilities wanted to spend the money to upgrade them, as their competitors could benefit from their investment.  Because of this dis-incentive to invest in expanding the system’s capabilities, today, the average utility spends just 2% of its revenue to research. Government regulators have been caught in a mire of conflicting federal and state bureaucracies each trying to gain control.

In spite of ever growing demand for electricity and the desire to add wind, solar, nuclear, and more coal-fired plants to the grid, less than 700 miles of interstate transmission lines have gone up since 2000.

When you look at our nation’s telecom and Internet infrastructure, that was built with high capacity long haul “backbone” links designed to interconnect regional phone and Internet exchanges. The idea being that we would like to be able to pick up the phone or email someone on the other side of the country and that requires serious infrastructure to interconnect the regional networks.

We need a similar high capacity and efficient power transportation infrastructure that will support:

1. The ability to add regional green energy (wind, water, solar, etc.) sources to add power that could be used by communities across the country.
2. The ability to reliably transport electricity with minimal loss during transmission.
3. That has a standards based core similar to the Internet’s IP based infrastructure, that will allow for end to end monitoring and intelligence.  We need intelligence from the back bone all the way to communities and homes, like Boulder, Colorado’s Smart Grid City.
4. Develop power storage techniques so we can bank electricity and use it later as needed.

The United States is supposed to have $40 billion in stimulous money for energy and half of that is to go toward grid related projects.  Let’s hope the money is spent wisely and that we can build a new more efficent model for the world to emulate.  

Source:  April 2009 Article from Wired Magazine by Brendan Koerner

Not too many years ago the nation’s telecom infrastructure was comprised of copper wire that connected cities.  Over time the copper wire was replaced with fiber optics first for long haul connections and then even within metro areas and in some cases right to people’s homes.

Do you think this type of revolutionary change is possible with updating the nation’s grid?  Obviously, we are dealing with vastly different technologies, but what was once just a dream for telecom became today’s reality.

Not too many years ago the nation’s telecom infrastructure was comprised of copper wire that connected cities.  Over time the copper wire was replaced with fiber optics first for long haul connections and then even within metro areas and in some cases right to people’s homes.

Do you think this type of revolutionary change is possible with updating the nation’s grid?  Obviously, we are dealing with vastly different technologies, but what was once just a dream for telecom became today’s reality.