Author: Mason Willrich
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262342413
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
A comprehensive, coherent strategy for modernizing America's electricity infrastructure while ensuring affordable, reliable, secure, and environmentally sustainable electricity services. America's aging electricity infrastructure is deteriorating rapidly even as the need for highly reliable electric service—driven by the explosion of digital technology—continues to rise. Largely missing from national discussions, however, is a coherent, comprehensive national strategy for modernizing this critical infrastructure. Energy expert Mason Willrich presents just such a strategy in this book, connecting the dots across electric utilities, independent suppliers, government bureaucracies, political jurisdictions, and academic disciplines. He explains the need for a coherent approach, offers a framework for analyzing policy options, and proposes a step-by-step strategy for modernizing electrical infrastructure, end-to-end, in a way that ensures the delivery of affordable, reliable, secure, and environmentally sustainable electricity services. Willrich argues that an effective electrical infrastructure modernization strategy must incorporate flexibility, adaptability, and the capacity to coordinate policies at local, state, and federal levels. He reviews the history of America's electrification, from Edison's demonstration of the incandescent light bulb through the recent expansion of wind, solar, and energy efficiency as carbon-free energy resources. He describes the current ownership and operation of the electric industry and the complicated web of federal and state policies that govern it.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309371422
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
Electricity, supplied reliably and affordably, is foundational to the U.S. economy and is utterly indispensable to modern society. However, emissions resulting from many forms of electricity generation create environmental risks that could have significant negative economic, security, and human health consequences. Large-scale installation of cleaner power generation has been generally hampered because greener technologies are more expensive than the technologies that currently produce most of our power. Rather than trade affordability and reliability for low emissions, is there a way to balance all three? The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies considers how to speed up innovations that would dramatically improve the performance and lower the cost of currently available technologies while also developing new advanced cleaner energy technologies. According to this report, there is an opportunity for the United States to continue to lead in the pursuit of increasingly clean, more efficient electricity through innovation in advanced technologies. The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies makes the case that America's advantagesâ€"world-class universities and national laboratories, a vibrant private sector, and innovative states, cities, and regions that are free to experiment with a variety of public policy approachesâ€"position the United States to create and lead a new clean energy revolution. This study focuses on five paths to accelerate the market adoption of increasing clean energy and efficiency technologies: (1) expanding the portfolio of cleaner energy technology options; (2) leveraging the advantages of energy efficiency; (3) facilitating the development of increasing clean technologies, including renewables, nuclear, and cleaner fossil; (4) improving the existing technologies, systems, and infrastructure; and (5) leveling the playing field for cleaner energy technologies. The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies is a call for leadership to transform the United States energy sector in order to both mitigate the risks of greenhouse gas and other pollutants and to spur future economic growth. This study's focus on science, technology, and economic policy makes it a valuable resource to guide support that produces innovation to meet energy challenges now and for the future.

Author: William L. Thompson
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 149179044X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
There’s probably a good chance that you’ve turned on your television, computer, or an appliance without giving much thought about the electric grid. But when there’s a power outage, it’s a different story. Suddenly, you’re asking yourself questions such as: What is the electric grid and who owns it? Who controls the grid and how is it controlled? What causes a grid blackout? What is the future of the grid? William L. Thompson, who retired from Dominion Virginia Power after thirty-eight years in the electric business, answers those questions and many more in this book for anyone curious about the electric grid and how it works. In plain, simple language, he reveals what goes on behind the scenes at grid control centers across the country. He also explains how electricity is generated through renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. He also examines the causes behind the largest blackout in United States history and how global warming and technological developments could permanently change Living on the Grid.

Author: Julie A Cohn
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262343797
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The history of the grid, the world's largest interconnected power machine that is North America's electricity infrastructure. The North American power grid has been called the world's largest machine. The grid connects nearly every living soul on the continent; Americans rely utterly on the miracle of electrification. In this book, Julie Cohn tells the history of the grid, from early linkages in the 1890s through the grid's maturity as a networked infrastructure in the 1980s. She focuses on the strategies and technologies used to control power on the grid—in fact made up of four major networks of interconnected power systems—paying particular attention to the work of engineers and system operators who handled the everyday operations. To do so, she consulted sources that range from the pages of historical trade journals to corporate archives to the papers of her father, Nathan Cohn, who worked in the industry from 1927 to 1989—roughly the period of key power control innovations across North America. Cohn investigates major challenges and major breakthroughs but also the hidden aspects of our electricity infrastructure, both technical and human. She describes the origins of the grid and the growth of interconnection; emerging control issues, including difficulties in matching generation and demand on linked systems; collaboration and competition against the backdrop of economic depression and government infrastructure investment; the effects of World War II on electrification; postwar plans for a coast-to-coast grid; the northeast blackout of 1965 and the East-West closure of 1967; and renewed efforts at achieving stability and reliability after those two events.

Author: Travis Bradford
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262345013
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1211

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Book Description
A comprehensive textbook that integrates tools from technology, economics, markets, and policy to approach energy issues using a dynamic systems and capital-centric perspective. The global energy system is the vital foundation of modern human industrial society. Traditionally studied through separate disciplines of engineering, economics, environment, or public policy, this system can be fully understood only by using an approach that integrates these tools. This textbook is the first to take a dynamic systems perspective on understanding energy systems, tracking energy from primary resource to final energy services through a long and capital-intensive supply chain bounded by both macroeconomic and natural resource systems. The book begins with a framework for understanding how energy is transformed as it moves through the system with the aid of various types of capital, its movement influenced by a combination of the technical, market, and policy conditions at the time. It then examines the three primary energy subsystems of electricity, transportation, and thermal energy, explaining such relevant topics as systems thinking, cost estimation, capital formation, market design, and policy tools. Finally, the book reintegrates these subsystems and looks at their relation to the economic system and the ecosystem that they inhabit. Practitioners and theorists from any field will benefit from a deeper understanding of both existing dynamic energy system processes and potential tools for intervention.

Author: United States United States Department of Energy
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781522769347
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
65 senior executives representing the electric utility industry, equipment manufacturers, information technology providers, Federal and state government agencies, interest groups, universities, and National Laboratories met to discuss the future of North America's electric system. (A list of the participants can be found in the appendix.) The intent of the meeting was to identify a national vision of the future electric system, covering the entire value chain: generation, transmission, distribution, storage, and end-use. The focus was on electric delivery - "the grid," or the portion of the electric infrastructure that lies between the central power plant and the customer - as well as the regulatory framework that governs system planning and market operations. The purpose of this document is to describe the common vision articulated at that meeting. The U.S. Department of Energy will use this vision to help implement President Bush's call for "...modernizing America's electric delivery system" and the 51 recommendations contained in the National Transmission Grid Study. Various stakeholders, including industry practitioners, policy makers, and researchers, will use the vision as the coordinating foundation for actions leading to the construction of a 21st century electric system. The vision will guide the development of the National Electric Delivery Technologies Roadmap.

Author: UNited States UNited States Department of Energy
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781514664858
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
On April 2-3, 2003, 65 senior executives representing the electric utility industry, equipment manufacturers, information technology providers, Federal and state government agencies, interest groups, universities, and National Laboratories met to discuss the future of North America's electric system. (A list of the participants can be found in the appendix.) The intent of the meeting was to identify a national vision of the future electric system, covering the entire value chain: generation, transmission, distribution, storage, and end-use. The focus was on electric delivery - "the grid," or the portion of the electric infrastructure that lies between the central power plant and the customer - as well as the regulatory framework that governs system planning and market operations. The purpose of this document is to describe the common vision articulated at that meeting. The U.S. Department of Energy will use this vision to help implement President Bush's call for ..".modernizing America's electric delivery system" and the 51 recommendations contained in the National Transmission Grid Study. Various stakeholders, including industry practitioners, policy makers, and researchers, will use the vision as the coordinating foundation for actions leading to the construction of a 21st century electric system. The vision will guide the development of the National Electric Delivery Technologies Roadmap.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309116023
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 736

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Book Description
For multi-user PDF licensing, please contact customer service. Energy touches our lives in countless ways and its costs are felt when we fill up at the gas pump, pay our home heating bills, and keep businesses both large and small running. There are long-term costs as well: to the environment, as natural resources are depleted and pollution contributes to global climate change, and to national security and independence, as many of the world's current energy sources are increasingly concentrated in geopolitically unstable regions. The country's challenge is to develop an energy portfolio that addresses these concerns while still providing sufficient, affordable energy reserves for the nation. The United States has enormous resources to put behind solutions to this energy challenge; the dilemma is to identify which solutions are the right ones. Before deciding which energy technologies to develop, and on what timeline, we need to understand them better. America's Energy Future analyzes the potential of a wide range of technologies for generation, distribution, and conservation of energy. This book considers technologies to increase energy efficiency, coal-fired power generation, nuclear power, renewable energy, oil and natural gas, and alternative transportation fuels. It offers a detailed assessment of the associated impacts and projected costs of implementing each technology and categorizes them into three time frames for implementation.

Author: Steven W. Blume
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119180198
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
The second edition of Steven W. Blume’s bestseller provides a comprehensive treatment of power technology for the non-electrical engineer working in the electric power industry This book aims to give non-electrical professionals a fundamental understanding of large interconnected electrical power systems, better known as the “Power Grid”, with regard to terminology, electrical concepts, design considerations, construction practices, industry standards, control room operations for both normal and emergency conditions, maintenance, consumption, telecommunications and safety. The text begins with an overview of the terminology and basic electrical concepts commonly used in the industry then it examines the generation, transmission and distribution of power. Other topics discussed include energy management, conservation of electrical energy, consumption characteristics and regulatory aspects to help readers understand modern electric power systems. This second edition features: New sections on renewable energy, regulatory changes, new measures to improve system reliability, and smart technologies used in the power grid system Updated practical examples, photographs, drawing, and illustrations to help the reader gain a better understanding of the material “Optional supplementary reading” sections within most chapters to elaborate on certain concepts by providing additional detail or background Electric Power System Basics for the Nonelectrical Professional, Second Edition, gives business professionals in the industry and entry-level engineers a strong introduction to power technology in non-technical terms. Steve W. Blume is Founder of Applied Professional Training, Inc., APT Global, LLC, APT College, LLC and APT Corporate Training Services, LLC, USA. Steve is a registered professional engineer and certified NERC Reliability Coordinator with a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering specializing in power and a Bachelor's degree specializing in Telecommunications. He has more than 25 years’ experience teaching electric power system basics to non-electrical professionals. Steve's engineering and operations experience includes generation, transmission, distribution, and electrical safety. He is an active senior member in IEEE and has published two books in power systems through IEEE and Wiley.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309463076
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
Americans' safety, productivity, comfort, and convenience depend on the reliable supply of electric power. The electric power system is a complex "cyber-physical" system composed of a network of millions of components spread out across the continent. These components are owned, operated, and regulated by thousands of different entities. Power system operators work hard to assure safe and reliable service, but large outages occasionally happen. Given the nature of the system, there is simply no way that outages can be completely avoided, no matter how much time and money is devoted to such an effort. The system's reliability and resilience can be improved but never made perfect. Thus, system owners, operators, and regulators must prioritize their investments based on potential benefits. Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System focuses on identifying, developing, and implementing strategies to increase the power system's resilience in the face of events that can cause large-area, long-duration outages: blackouts that extend over multiple service areas and last several days or longer. Resilience is not just about lessening the likelihood that these outages will occur. It is also about limiting the scope and impact of outages when they do occur, restoring power rapidly afterwards, and learning from these experiences to better deal with events in the future.