Upgrade to US Power Grid

The grid upgrade, which will decarbonize the power sector and support electrification of transportation and other sectors such as clean energy and charging infrastructure, is a crucial part of reaching the Biden administration’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035 and net zero by 2050.

And it can’t come soon enough: 70% of the US grid’s transmission lines and power transformers are over 25 years old. There’s also insufficient transmission capacity, especially transmission that facilitates transfer of power across regions.

As it stands, the power grid is vulnerable to harsh weather, and the new initiative will improve reliability.

The new Better Grid Initiative will make the US power grid more resilient, increase access to affordable and reliable clean energy, and create jobs across industry sectors. The DOE’s summary of the Initiative states:

Under the Building a Better Grid Initiative, DOE will identify critical national transmission needs and support the buildout of long-distance, high-voltage transmission facilities that meet those needs through collaborative transmission planning, innovative financing mechanisms, coordinated permitting, and continued transmission-related research and development. DOE commits to robust engagement on energy justice and collaboration, including with states, American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives, industry, unions, local communities, and other stakeholders for successful implementation of the program.

The DOE’s notice of intent includes five major points:

• Engaging and collaborating early with states, tribal nations, and stakeholders.
• Enhancing transmission planning to identify areas of greatest need.
• Deploying more than $20 billion in federal financing tools, including through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s new $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Progra, m, $3 billion expansion of the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program, and more than $10 billion in grants for states, Tribes, and utilities to enhance grid resilience and prevent power outages. It also taps into existing tools, including the more than $3 billion Western Area Power Administration Transmission Infrastructure Program, and a number of loan guarantee programs through the Loan Programs Office.
• Facilitating an efficient transmission permitting process by coordinating with federal agencies to streamline permitting, using public private partnerships, and designating corridors.
• Performing transmission-related research and development.  READ MORE...

Power Grid Fails

12 Things You Need to Prepare for if the Grid is Down

#1 Lighting

Make sure you can see when the power grid fails! Could you find your way out in pitch black with elevators not working at home or work or when traveling? The power will probably fail when you don’t expect it.

Even a small flashlight can make a huge difference. Consider a flashlight for each bedroom, each bathroom and in your kitchen, garage, in each vehicle and one near your electrical panel.

Stocking spare flashlights is a great plan, especially if you have kids who lose them. Consider a flashlight for your key ring, your pocket and/or purse and one at work. Also, consider rechargeable batteries for those flashlights.

Candles or oil hurricane lamps are other possible lighting source, but keep in mind they create a fire risk and fresh air may be a problem if you are in a tightly sealed building. One advantage of candles and lamps is that they do provide heat, which is useful for cold climates.

A crank powered flashlight is great for kids and serve a double function as a flashlight and backup charger for emergencies. Plus you can get them relatively inexpensively.
Best inexpensive flashlight – We recommend a 5 pack of AA Kootek XPE-Q5 LED flashlight with adjustable focus zoom for more info on this flashlight see the “Best Cheap Flashlight” post.
Best mid-priced 1000+ lumen flashlight – 18650 LED Flashlight Thrunite TN12
Multi-function crank flashlight/radio/USB phone charger
Kaito Voyager Flashlight with AM/FM NOAA /2 band shortwave Radio, Cell Phone Solar / Crank USB Charger
iRonsnow Dynamo Emergency Solar or Hand Crank FM Radio with LED Flashlight with USB charger
Good small work flood light (has a magnet so it can stick to car while changing a tire) the NEBO COB flashlight is a great option, it uses 3x AAA batteries.
Solar Camp Light – Camping Lantern (with USB charger)
Crank Camp Light – Camping Lantern (with USB charger)


#2 Batteries

Flashlights are great, but when is the last time you checked them? Get batteries – a lot of rechargeable batteries.

Do you have long life batteries? You can get low self discharge rechargeable AA batteries. Also there are batteries with a long storage life. The Duracell pack has a 10 year shelf life and a new Energizer pack has a 20 year shelf life.

If possible, standardize your flashlights and other battery gear on AA, AAA and/or 18650. Even though there are long shelf life batteries, we recommend rechargeable batteries and a good charger.

Rechargeable batteries cost a bit more up front but can save you a lot of money over the years. They batteries protect you in an extended power outage because you can recharge them. You would eventually run out of single use batteries.

There are crank and solar battery chargers, also your car can charge batteries while you travel using a 12 volt adapter.
Our favorite Panasonic AA and AAA Eneloop Pro
Tenergy AA and AAA batteries are good and less expensive than the Panasonic
Nekteck 21watt Solar Panel charger for USB devices
XTAR VC4L USB battery charger

#3 Water

Keep a couple cases of water bottles around for emergency power outages. Rotate your water storage. Even water will go stale after extended storage. We have a 55 gal drinking potable water drum with a pump and consider a roller base for emergencies, especially if you do not have an alternate water source.  READ MORE...

Power Grid

COPENHAGEN, N.Y. — On a good day, a fair wind blows off Lake Ontario, the long-distance transmission lines of New York state are not clogged up and yet another heat wave hasn’t pushed the urban utilities to their limits. On such a day, power from the two big wind turbines in Vaughn Moser’s hayfield in this little village join the great flow of electricity from upstate as it courses through the bottleneck west of Albany and then heads south, where some portion of it feeds what is currently the country’s largest electric vehicle charging station, on the edge of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

There, at an installation opened earlier this year by a car-sharing company called Revel, on the site of the old Pfizer pharmaceutical headquarters, this carbon-free power can help juice up a whole fleet of sleek vehicles that aim to leave the internal combustion engine behind.

But that’s on a good day. Even now — before this state and the country’s grand ambitions for an electric future are fully in motion — there are too many bad ones.

Seventy-four times last year, the wind across Upstate New York dropped so low that for stretches of eight hours or more barely any electricity was produced. Nearly half the year, the main transmission line feeding the metropolitan area was at full capacity, so that no more power could be fed into it. Congestion struck other, smaller lines, too, and when that happened some of the wind turbine blades upstate fell still.

And in New York City this summer, the utility Con Edison appealed to customers to cut back on their electricity usage during the strain of five separate heat waves, while Tropical Storms Elsa, Henri and Ida cut power to thousands.

Converting the nation’s fleet of automobiles and trucks to electric power is a critical piece of the battle against climate change. The Biden administration wants to see them account for half of all sales by 2030, and New York state has enacted a ban on the sale of internal combustion cars and trucks starting in 2035.  READ MORE...

Wake Up America

 A few days ago, we experienced the result of a Russian Hacking on our Colonial Pipeline, and many Southern States were without gasoline for their vehicles for about 7-10 days in some cases.

Where we live in East TN, we experienced some gas stations closed while others remained open and the lines to wait for gas were minimal.  The main gas station at which we get all of our gas because it is about 7 cents less now has gasoline in plenty of supply.

It reminded me of the gas lines of the 1970's only it was not as severe.

If we had electric vehicle, we would not have been impacted by the Colonial Pipeline shutdown...  but, what the mainstream media idiots do not realized that if the Russian Hackers could shut down the electronics of the Oil People, they will be able to shut down our FRIGGiNG ENERGY GRID which would at that time control our electric vehicles.

Are they stupid or what?

Our future is totally contingent upon stopping the CYBER HACKERS and the current administration seems not to have THE BALLS to do anything about it because they are more concerned with defunding the police for blacks or teaching critical race theory for blacks.

Now, I am not opposed to blacks or their pursuit for happiness but I am against teaching stuff that has little bearing on our society outside of the small white circle of billionaires who regulate the direction of our society.

The ordinary white man does not GIVE A SHIT who is black or white or brown or red or a sliding scale of color variations.

Cops don't hate blacks, but a few cops do hate blacks and that does not justify changing the system because we are experiencing special cause variation instead of common cause variation.

I really do feel sorry for those who are intellectually ignorant and have retained minimal knowledge from their education...  it is really sad...  but our government cannot force idiots to learn.