Of course it is.
We have more energy consuming stuff than ever. But do you ever see NEW substations being built? NEW long range power lines? I don’t.
Around here, the utility has a deal- they will sell you a top of the line $400 color touchscreen WiFi thermostat that talks to Alexa and displays the weather report and does a bunch of other shit, for $10 (not a typo). In exchange, you let them remotely shut off your AC if the grid gets overloaded.
Why do they do this? Because a few truckloads of thermostats (with a bulk discount) are a fuckton cheaper than actually upgrading the grid.
And so we hear about grid overload days and possible brownouts and incentives to shut stuff off as if this is the way it’s supposed to be. But the reality is these problems only exist because utilities don’t keep ahead of necessary upgrades. After all, why spend the money when there’s shareholders to answer to?
I’m at this point pretty convinced that the US is like your friend in high school that never changed the oil in his car because it still started and ran, until of course it didn’t.
Good thing the grid is run by private corporations that always do timely maintenance. Oh wait…
Capitalism will force them to provide good service or be driven out by the competition!
What competition?
uhhhhh
We’ve only been saying this for 20 years, what’s another 20?
Record profits for shareholders could have been applied elsewhere, like investing in ourselves and what keeps the gears of society turning.
With rooftop solar I get to be the asshole that doesn’t care about the grid.
And you too can be an asshole!
If the US got similar problems as Norway, you should still care as there is a lot of energy wasted on transferring it from A to B.
ya think? you know there are countries where blackouts are a rare thing, not a routine occurrence…
