4 ms·

I was looking into this and I am thinking that the solution is actually not to weatherize the grid but rather to have each home be able to be self-sufficient fo

I was looking into this and I am thinking that the solution is actually not to weatherize the grid but rather to have each home be able to be self-sufficient for a certain period of time. Perhaps having micro grids in communities and maybe having each home have either a generator or a home battery. We already have stuff like the Tesla powerwall. If the battery bank method is used then it could also possibly be used during summer months. Possibly a good idea to offer more generous tax credits to encourage people to purchase these technologies. Under this setup if a partial grid failure occurs then rolling blackouts wouldn't be a big deal. I'm not sure how expensive it is to weatherize the grid but I would imagine it to be very expensive.

542354234235 6y ago
The thing is, rolling blackouts aren't a big deal. In an extreme event like these storms, having a power grid that can survive some loss in capacity with rolling blackouts is the goal. What happened in Texas was a complete failure of the entire gird over huge swaths of land leading to millions of people being without power for multiple days. Most people don’t need generators or powerwalls for a once a decade risk of some rolling blackouts. Most communities don’t need more expensive, less efficient micro power grids for the occasional rolling blackout. It is less expensive to weatherize the grid so it can remain mostly functional in extreme events than to have tens of millions of households buy and maintain generators so they don’t freeze to death because the actual power grid was not properly built and maintained.