America’s Failing Power Grid
Power Outages Causing More Damage to US Properties and Assets
Remember the power outage event in Texas during February of 2021? That event caused $195 Billion dollars in damage and killed nearly 57 people. This destruction was caused by an unexpected severe winter storm that left millions of people without heat in freezing temperatures. Power grid blackouts are unfortunately becoming more common as problems with our preexisting grid become more apparent. Read on to learn more about what is causing these grid failures and potential solutions for this crisis.
Power outage caused by severe weather.
A Very Creaky Grid and Severe Weather
According to Time Magazine, the average electricity consumer experienced nearly 7.5 hours without power this year, with approximately 5 of those hours due to natural disasters. There has also been an increase in the average annual number of power outage events caused by natural disasters. In 2000, the average was nearly 50 large-area outages a year directly tied to severe weather events. Now, that average is over 100 outages per year, showing a clear correlation between massive power outages and the increase in severe weather. Although increased funding to strengthen the grid is coming, it may not be enough to compete with erratic changes in weather patterns that put immense pressure on the existing grid.
Americans are becoming more reliant on electricity in their daily lives. As many households switch to fully electric appliances, electric vehicles and more, the pressure on our grid only increases. Gridmetrics, Inc., located in Louisville, Colorado, provides actionable power intelligence that can improve outage detection, power restoration, grid safety and voltage variability. Scott Caruso, Gridmetrics' president explained, "most transformers are designed to service a certain amount of homes, but when you add electric vehicle chargers, it ultimately becomes too much for the transformer to handle. It's literally like adding the peak demand of another home to the transformer" Because of this dilemma, many communities are being forced to upgrade expensive infrastructure.
The increased prevalence of decarbonization techniques offers an additional set of challenges brought on by renewable energy sources. Historically, the United States has relied on centralized power sources such as nuclear energy facilities that create a one-way flow of electrons through the grid. When renewable sources such as solar and wind are brought into the picture, this flow is interrupted. Because solar and wind farms are typically located on the edge of the grid, its difficult for the current infrastructure to handle this inflow. For example, wind turbines are often strategically deployed to areas with high wind, but people don't tend to live in these areas. This generated power then needs to be transported to areas with high electricity demand through an aging grid not built to handle this flow of energy.
Renewable power sources contributing to the grid
The end result of an archaic electrical grid and an increase in severe weather events is blackouts that leave Americans frustrated and often vulnerable. How we solve this issue has yet to be determined, but we can offer tools to help you understand power outage risk across the nation.
Power Outage Mapping
Example of power outage alert powered by Earthvisionz and Gridmetrics
Earthvisionz works with Gridmetrics to provide hyper-local power outage alerts for both asset monitoring and damage response when outages occur.
Who Needs this Data?
There are a growing number of use cases for power-outage data including lead generation and asset monitoring. Professionals in the restoration and recovery industry find this tool useful to see large-scale power outage events and send teams to deploy back-up generators and restore any damage that may have occurred. Understanding where large power outages have occurred in relation to affected facilities is extremely useful in helping communities repair and recover from damage. Without these tools, potential work is lost and communities in need of restoration services are left in the dark. Additionally, any industry with a need to monitor assets using granular data can utilize this power outage feature to receive alerts whenever power is lost in the asset's vicinity. This can provide immense savings as operations managers can immediately implement strategies to reduce damage and get power on immediately. Gridmetrics' technology allows users to predict when a power outage may be coming by utilizing data from nearby assets in parallel with weather intelligence. Without reliable information on power outages for dispersed assets, business' risk break-ins, destroyed inventory, and a general interference in business continuity.
