Sad Socket’s The State of the Grid Address
Sad Socket: President Obama and my fellow electricity consumers. America, we are in a crisis — an electricity crisis. Recent news headlines focus our attention on other higher profile energy challenges such as reducing our foreign oil dependence and acquiring more energy from renewable sources. They ignore the impending disaster that lies as close as the electrical outlets in our walls, and the fact that electricity is the real answer to all of the Nation’s energy challenges.
We are dependent on a failing system — a 20th century electricity grid providing inadequate power to our 21st century lives. Built largely in the 1960s or before, with technology a decade older than that, today’s electric power system is unreliable, inefficient and insecure. It pollutes the environment and significantly increases our expenses. Nearly 40 percent of America’s carbon emissions — a major contributor to global warming — comes from our inefficient power system. This means that more pollution comes from our power system than from the cars we drive. Not to mention that at least two-thirds of electricity is lost during generation and delivery before it ever reaches consumers. Bottom line: Consumers end up paying for power they can’t even use. And we pay more when the power system fails. Every year outages leave our economy in the dark and out of an estimated $150 billion. Even Congress is alarmed by the vulnerabilities of the country’s power system: It tasked the Pentagon in the Energy Independence and Security Act in 2007 to analyze the security weaknesses of the electricity grid that make it a target for terrorists. If we really want to use more of the energy we pay for already, secure our energy independence and grid infrastructure, halt climate change and strengthen our global competitiveness, we must act now. We must modernize our Nation’s obsolete and vulnerable bulk power system today. Every day, electricity consumers become more reliant on receiving an uninterrupted flow of digital quality power to their homes and businesses, but every day the power grid becomes less reliable. As an integral part of the power system myself, I have personally witnessed this approaching catastrophe. As time has gone by, it has become progressively more difficult to meet the power demands of my homeowners. Occasionally, yet too frequently, I have let them down. By neglecting to improve our electricity grid infrastructure and address its need for smarter technology, we stunted the grid’s growth. But, it is not too late to solve this crisis. Through smart investment and American ingenuity, we can create a more reliable, efficient and secure power system. The technology exists today to transform the grid from an analog dinosaur to a smart, efficient system that meets the needs of the digital age. We just need leadership from the White House to the state house for this transformation to occur. We need to allow free, competitive retail markets for electricity service. We need to incent utilities to provide customers with time-of-use rates that enable and incent efficiency. We need to compensate utilities for efficiency programs and customer service, not just for the amount of electricity they sell. We need to pave the way for smart microgrids. We need to require higher reliability standards for the electric grid. We need to enact new energy efficiency standards to conserve power. We need to change tax codes to foster grid innovation. And we need to start now. With a modern electricity grid, Americans gain more control over their energy use and expenses. We gain a greener, cleaner power system that emits less harmful carbon emissions into the atmosphere and is capable of incorporating more clean solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear power into our electricity generation mix. We gain a stronger, smarter electricity system that can supply quality power to our digital 21st century lives. It’s time for all of us to start demanding that our public officials openly recognize the importance and value of transforming the electric power system and take the steps necessary to do so. Infrastructure improvements that incorporate smart grids should be part of their energy discussions — yet they are too often just afterthoughts. We need to demand more as concerned electricity consumers. We can remedy this electricity crisis, if we get smart. Before our lights go out.
