Asymmetrical Information

"UPDATE: It is getting bloody hot in here."

Think what it's like in Baghdad. Today's high: 116 degrees Fahrenheit. Tomorrow, same. Saturday 117. Sunday, 116.

I definitely wouldn't live here in North Carolina, if there wasn't air conditioning.

The Old Europeans are wimps and that is why the United States is the dominant power in the world. My German ancestors are lazy socialists who will find any excuse to get out of work.

40°C???? That's an average summer day around here.
Of course my office has airconditioning, but previous workplaces did not.

Too bad it had to happen so late in the day on a Thursday. We'll have to wait until Tuesday morning to read the Krugman column blaming it all on Bush.

Or-- I just noticed-- you can scroll down one post and read a comment blaming it all on the liberals. Crikey.

"Or-- I just noticed-- you can scroll down one post and read a comment blaming it all on the liberals. Crikey."

Yup, we should blame this "all on the liberals." There’s no reason why our nation doesn’t have ample redundancy systems ready for such a crisis. Only the liberals are responsible. It’s as simple as that.

Of course there's a reason, for pity's sake: "Redundancy systems" cost a lot of money. Ignoring little facts like that is something I usually associate with liberals of a certain sort. Evidently it's not limited to them.

""Redundancy systems" cost a lot of money."

Not if you focus upon nuclear power! Unfortunately, the liberal ideologues and their friends in the "mainstream" media virtually destroyed that industry.

What about laws passed by both libs and cons that make getting "off the grid" regulatorily prohibitive?

The cost of a solar power system is not bad these days, however a myriad of zoning and utilities laws drive up the costs and time consumed by filling out paperwork to a point where most people just don't bother.

This has happened twice before, the first time in the late 60's. It doesn't seem to be a problem of shortage of generating capacity, but rather that there seems to be a possibility of catastrophic positive feedback built into the grid. And this might be boosted by superannuated equipment or insufficient staffing - a lack of investment all right, but due to pennypinching rather than NIMBYism blocking power plant construction.

What happens is that several lightning strikes or equipment failures happen close together. Normally such things cause short blackouts in limited areas, as the power companies re-route around downed lines or set up transmission from distant areas to make up for a power plant failure. But at least in the northeast where the equipment is old and the loads unusually concentrated, too many failures at once can cause a chain reaction of forced shutdowns. Good trunklines may become overloaded because the areas of power loss are pulling too much power from distance sources, and so they shut off. Good generators have to shut down if they lose the trunklines to carry the power away - and once shut down, it takes hours to re-start them. And around and around it goes, spreading statewide in a few minutes, and possibly across the whole northeast in less than an hour. Power companies that hear about it a few minutes before it hits them and have knowledgeable and decisive engineers on duty can isolate themselves before they get pulled into the chain reaction of failures, so the spread is stopped eventually. Then it's just a matter of making sure everything's been switched off, then bringing things back up in the correct area over the blacked-out area - and if it's got to be done manually, it's going to take many hours for the limited staff to reach all of the switches.

It sounds like (1) there's a design flaw in the system that it doesn't automatically tend to limit the shutdowns, and (2) a little battery backed automation would go a hell of a long way to both prevent such problems and bring the system up quickly afterwards. And the fact that it only really goes out of control in one part of the country suggests that this area is not making capital investments and updating or replacing ancient equipment, or that they aren't hiring enough good engineers to hang around the plants waiting for something to go wrong.

However, I'm an electronic engineer, not electrical, so maybe I just don't understand the system...

"Not if you focus upon nuclear power!"

How does nuclear power make transmission more reliable?

Depending on where you live, the time to recoup your solar costs can be anywhere from 5 to 15 years. Most panels are warrantied for 20+ years and being a static medium last even longer. The startup cost of solar and a change in lifestyle are the killers for some. A grid-connected solar system goes for anywhere between 10 grand to 25 grand depending on your needs. If you want to be free of the grid, you need to cut your luxuries down to size. It takes some getting used to, but I've read of many happy people who live "off-the-grid."

If you have a year-round stream with an 80 - 100 foot change in elevation, hydropower is a much better and more cost effective choice. Depending on the state, you can sell back to the utility what you don't use. Wind is usually less expensive than solar if you have enough space and neighbors with a rusted out Charger in the yard (covered in blackberries or kudzu) who won't bitch about your new toy. Some areas are windier than others. I live in a dead zone, so wind is out for me.

Real Goods has all kinds of cool stuff that is way overpriced.

There's a bizarre sentence in the article you linked to: "The whole of Europe is wilting in the heat and nuclear reactors are being hosed down in a bid to avert a summer meltdown."

Not exactly on topic, I know, but it's the funniest thing I've read today. (I need to get out more.)

I would love to read some more reports about what is actually happening in the office, or in the city.

Could this be one stage in a series of events?

Or, what are the stages in this blackout from start to finish?

“How does nuclear power make transmission more reliable?”

Nuclear power would dramatically drop the price for energy---and make it vastly less expensive to build backup systems. Why is that difficult for you to comprehend? The Luddite shenanigans of the Liberals is responsible for this nonsense. Also, the wealthy Manhattan Liberals can afford to pay more for energy. It’s the poor who get hurt. The Democrats are truly the enemy of the economically disadvantaged.

David, blaming this problem on liberals is just absurd.

>It takes some getting used to, but I've read of >many happy people who live "off-the-grid."

I am an engineer, and I have exactly this sort of system set up on my sailboat, so that I don't have to run the engine too much to charge the batteries, but let me tell you, it will NEVER catch on with the vast majority of people. It requires a knowledge base about batteries, and electricity, and electricity storage, and a willingness to live in a relatively primitive state, that almost no one will tolerate.

These systems can be very dangerous if they are not maintained and operated properly, and it cannot be done with just a PC and a slick interface. You have to physically check the water level in the batteries, and add distilled water to the batteries, which contain sulphuric acid, and lead, and occasionally overheat and catch fire. They cannot just be ignored.

Anyone who advocates these systems for use by the general public is naive.

“David, blaming this problem on liberals is just absurd.”

Gosh, who else made sure that more nuclear plants were not built? Was it perhaps Frosty the Snow Man or Lassie? Nope, the Liberal Luddites are responsible for this mess. New York and the other afflicted areas should have plenty of cheap energy--and adequate redundancy systems.

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