According to the Fourth National Climate Assessment, humans are the dominant cause of global temperature rise, which many believe is directly responsible for the increased intensity of extreme weather events. The assessment shows that extreme events have cost the U.S.more than $1.1 trillion since 1980, and also warns that “The frequency and intensity of extreme high temperature events are virtually certain to increase in the future as global temperature increases”. We have only to look to Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico where major hurricanes caused catastrophic damage to the electric grid creating heightened concern for resiliency. The inability to re-establish power quickly in these jurisdictions is ultimately a reflection of their antiquated grids and the need for new policies promoting resilience using advanced technologies.
In October, at an Energy Subcommittee hearing examining resiliency, a witness advised federal lawmakers that “policies must keep pace with technologies”. And across the country, state energy commissions have commenced proceedings looking to expand the adoption of distributed energy technologies. While New York, California, and most recently, Rhode Island continue developing grid modernization policies relying on advanced technologies, jurisdictions most vulnerable to extreme weather should also initiate similar proceedings focused on integrating distributed energy technologies to improve resilience.
Puerto Rico in particular has a chance to rebuild its electric grid for the next generation by connecting as many advanced energy technologies as possible. Implementing policies that integrate distributed renewable energy, coupled with energy storage to support critical infrastructure can help the grid in these vulnerable areas effectively mitigate otherwise serious threats. With long-term outages, distributed energy would demonstrate its ability to quickly power public services like municipal treatment plants, traffic lights, first responders, and medical care. On the transmission side, bi-directional sectionalizers and reclosers can segment the electric grid when portions of it are knocked out. The grid can also incorporate “smart switching” to direct working electric generation towards operating electric feeder lines. Within a segmented grid, we can also improve resilience by integrating microgrids and community solar within each segment to isolate itself so as to remain operational when parts of the grid go down or are damaged.
Scott, 1. The best way to craft policies is to provide a goal. Set an energy efficiency goal to reduce consumption by X. Then provide a list of practices which… Read more »
Scott’s presentation about some of the benefits of distributed energy is correct and could well be expanded beyond the effects of extreme weather on our supply of electricity by including… Read more »
Good points, Herschel. I’d like to offer some personal observations regarding extreme weather events that I’ve experienced. I ran a commercial fishing boat in the Bering Sea for 20 years,… Read more »
There are projects installed in Greenland, throughout the Pacific that have weathered monsoons, typhoons, hurricanes. Some distributed wind systems can be winched down to ride out the storms and winched… Read more »
Regulators should craft policies through application of the scientific method of inquiry. To apply the scientific method is not what they currently do. Replacing the scientific method is a pseudoscientific method… Read more »
Options for providing resiliency to the electric power network in the case of extreme weather events need to be evaluated using a rigorous cost-benefit analysis. Plausible scenarios of hurricanes hitting… Read more »
This question is premised on the alarmism contained in the National Climate Assessment. A careful review of the document and its references shows that heat waves are no more frequent… Read more »
Bill: Your comments are “factually invalid”: “Extremely Hot Summers” (3 standard deviations above the 1951-1980 mean) have increased over 100X (10,000%) in the past 50 years or so: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/28/climate/more-frequent-extreme-summer-heat.html Sea… Read more »
Dan, Instead of relying on secondary sources–NY Times and USA Today–you should go to the source documents in the National Assessment that I cited. You also use a secondary source… Read more »
Bill: I’m sorry you didn’t take the time to see that the articles link to peer-reviewed papers: Heat: Perception of climate change, by James Hansen, Makiko Sato, and Reto Ruedy,… Read more »
Your recollection of Hansen’s predictions and mine are worlds apart. In the 1980s, it is my recollection that his predictions for this time period bear little resemblance to what has… Read more »
Bill: My recollection of Hansen’s predictions is not faulty because what I quoted came from Hansen’s 1981 paper! I’m glad I’m able to correct your faulty recollection. As for Hansen’s… Read more »
Here is the link to the evaluation of Hansen’s 1981 temperature predictions:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2012/04/evaluating-a-1981-temperature-projection/
You are correct that there is no scientific evidence that climate change creates more hurricanes. But according to NOAA there is evidence that, “Anthropogenic warming by the end of the… Read more »
Scott, I am not aware of any forecast 50 or more years into the future that has been correct. Are you? There are just too many unknowns to achieve accuracy and… Read more »
Bill: James Hansen’s paper from 1981 in Science is not yet 50 years old, but it made a number of predictions about the climate that have either already come true… Read more »
Dan, when I have the time I will review the paper you cited. I am not interested in the Real Climate assessment because I don’t know who did it. In… Read more »
Bill: The RealClimate temperature analysis was done by Geert Jan van Oldenborgh and Rein Haarsma of The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). Do you only accept science done by people… Read more »
Dan, you may not want to put words in my mouth but you come awfully close. I have spent more time on this question and the back and forth with… Read more »
Bill: Thanks for your reply. As you probably know, there is no such thing as certitude in science. There are theories, such as the theory of gravity, that do a… Read more »
Bill: The predictions are not the severity of storms and frequency of severe storms. My advice to you and other climate skeptics is that a conservative approach dictates adopting policies… Read more »
Distributed energy is not the solution to grid resilence, at least not until it is universal, which is decades or longer away. The reason is simple, even if 20% of… Read more »
Catching up on my Our Energy Policy reading … I would like to quote a native American proverb for Mr. O’Keefe. It is another way of looking at the future… Read more »
Distributed energy, as a major source of green power, will require reliable, economically viable energy storage, which currently does not exist. Continued advanced battery research is essential to achieve that… Read more »