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Tag Archives: energybiz

Data Everywhere, But Not a Byte to Use

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Donn Dears

There is considerable discussion about data, how it can improve energy efficiency and reduce the use of electricity. Frequently, it’s about capturing data of energy usage in the home so as to reduce the use of electricity and cut CO2 Continue reading Data Everywhere, But Not a Byte to Use→

Posted in Energy, Freedom, Government, Politics | Tagged CO2, Data, energy, energybiz, Intelligent Utility, IT, Smart Meter

Carbon Morality

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Donn Dears

When a CEO of a major utility talks about controlling CO2 emissions, it’s clear America’s standard of living is under attack. David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy, in his article in EnergyBiz, titled Carbon Morality, claims that those who argue Continue reading Carbon Morality→

Posted in Energy, Freedom, Government, Politics | Tagged CO2, electricity, energy, energybiz, GHG, global warming, Google, NRG, solar, wind

Hawthorne Redux

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Donn Dears

Editorials and articles designed to inspire more efficient use of electricity repeatedly cite examples of how different groups have used electricity more efficiently. An example of such an article appeared in the September issue of EnergyBiz, though there are dozens Continue reading Hawthorne Redux→

Posted in Energy, Freedom, Government, Politics | Tagged CO2, Conservation, electricity, energy, energybiz

Solar Reality

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Donn Dears

An Arizona Public Service (APS) General Manager spoke the truth about net metering when she said, “[with] net metering, and other rate factors, fewer customers must share these fixed costs, which cause their rates to rise. This spirals until the Continue reading Solar Reality→

Posted in Energy | Tagged APS, Arizona Public Service, Clean Energy, DOE, energy, energybiz, Net Metering, renewable, RPS

Pumping Up Storage

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Donn Dears

This is a play on pumped storage, where water is pumped uphill to a reservoir, and then released to flow downhill through a turbine to generate electricity. It’s the only proven method for storing large amounts of electricity, though there Continue reading Pumping Up Storage→

Posted in Energy | Tagged Batteries, CO2, energy, energybiz, IntelligentUtility, solar, wind

Smart Meters and Efficiency

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Donn Dears

Smart meters are being promoted as a key part of a strategy for improving energy efficiency. Some utilities, such as Commonwealth Edison, have sold state legislatures a bill of goods so that utilities can charge customers for installing smart meters. Continue reading Smart Meters and Efficiency→

Posted in Energy | Tagged electricity, energy, energybiz, Exelon, Illinois, Smart Meters

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Table of Contents

Introduction

When we flip the switch, the lights come on without anyone thinking about it. This has only been true for the last hundred years in metropolitan areas, and for only approximately eighty years in rural areas with the enactment of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.

In 1935, only 25 percent of rural homes in the United States had electricity, and there are people alive today who grew up without electricity. Today, few people are even aware of the monolithic system that generates, distributes, and controls the electricity that flows with seeming effortlessness across the United States. This system is referred to as the grid, which is actually three grids covering the entire lower forty-eight states.

Over the past one hundred years, there have been only two area-wide blackouts affecting over 30 million people caused by a failure of the transmission system. There have been other blackouts—mostly caused by storms—affecting smaller groups, perhaps as many as several million people. Overall, the grid has worked remarkably well. Reliability can still be improved upon, but this is primarily a question of placing transmission and distribution lines underground to minimize weather-induced outages.

Suddenly, we are faced with a threat to the grid we haven’t seen before. It is a threat that can dramatically increase blackouts and the suffering that accompanies them. Some in leadership positions have viewed climate change as an existential threat to mankind and have implemented actions to eliminate fossil fuels from the generation of electricity. Some have claimed that wind and solar and other renew- ables can replace all the coal-fired, natural gas, and nuclear power plants in the United States. It can be argued that the actions these people are taking are making electricity more costly and less reliable, and placing Americans at risk for little or no reason. They are willing to gamble the safety and lives of Americans, as well as the American economy, on an ideology.

Our nation has suffered through a medical war fighting COVID-19 in which thousands died. As my neighbor said,

“The inability of our country to anticipate the corona- virus pandemic and put in place adequate reserves of all of the things we needed—PPE, ventilators, masks, tests, hospital beds, etc.—speaks loudly and directly to the need for reliable on-demand electricity and the need to plan for it right now.”

Imagine if Americans had to suffer through rolling blackouts while quarantined at home during a future pandemic. How would newly erected emergency hospitals operate without electricity, let alone our existing hospitals without diesel fuel or natural gas to power emergency generators?

This was brought home by an oped in the Washington Post. Quoting from the op-ed:

Residential use is up as workers and school children stay home.

[Demand is down] in locked up restaurants, offices and factories.

Hospitals are a different story: They consume twice as much per square foot as hotels . . . lead schools and office buildings by an even greater margin. And their work couldn’t be more vital as they confront the novel coronavirus.

A grid operator, sequestered in his dispatch center in East Greenbush, New York, said it all, “Keeping the lights on. . . . It’s so critical.”3

There is little doubt there will be another pandemic. The only question is when. We must do what is needed to guarantee adequate and reliable supplies of electricity in preparation for the next pandemic.

President Trump recognized the vital importance of the grid when he issued an executive order on May 1, 2020, to protect the grid from foreign adversaries. He said the grid, “provides the electricity that sup- ports our national defense, vital emergency services, critical infrastruc- ture, economy, and way of life.”

There is also an ideology that threatens the grid. This book will examine how federal regulators, state governments, utility companies, and the operators of the grid themselves are imposing their beliefs about climate change on all Americans and placing the grid in great jeopardy. Unelected bureaucrats and self-imposed intelligentsia are making decisions that place all Americans in danger.

Looming Energy Crisis will show you why we must continue to use fossil fuels and why we must protect the grid from the actions of those who are imposing their personal beliefs on the rest of us. Our objective should be low-cost reliable electricity available for everyone.

Reliability is a national security issue.