Overview

When rolling blackouts come to the electric grid, they will be old news to the grid insiders. Only the electricity customers will be surprised. Grid insiders know how fragile the grid is becoming. Unfortunately, they have no incentive to solve the problems because near-misses increase their profits. Meredith Angwin describes how closed meetings, arcane auction rules, and five-minute planning horizons will topple the reliability of our electric grid. Shorting the Grid shines light on our vulnerable grid. It also suggests actions that can support the grid that supports all of us.

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9780989119085

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In Shorting the Grid, Meredith Angwin provides an enormously valuable, clear, and succinct explanation of our most important network...If you care about the future of our increasingly electrified world, buy this book and read it. - Robert Bryce, author of A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations An eye-opening expose of our grid's vulnerabilities...If you take for granted that the lights go on when you flip a switch, this book may blow your mind. - Joshua S. Goldstein, author of A Bright Future, How Some Countries have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow Shorting the Grid is full of sharp writing and engaging stories about the most hidden part of our grid - how grid-level decisions are made. - Dan Nott, artist and author of Hidden Systems, a forthcoming graphic non-fiction book on infrastructure The National Academy of Engineering describes the U.S. power grid as the supreme engineering achievement of the 20th century. ...Shorting the Grid reveals reasons why we must pay more attention to grid governance and the potential of poor decisions to override technical successes. - Rod Adams: blogger at Atomic Insights, Managing Member at Nucleation Capital LP

Author Information

As a working chemist, Meredith Angwin headed projects that lowered pollution and increased reliability on the electric grid. Her work included pollution control for nitrogen oxides in gas-fired combustion turbines, and corrosion control in geothermal and nuclear systems. She was one of the first women to be a project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute. She led projects in renewable and nuclear energy. In the past ten years, she began to study and take part in grid oversight and governance. For four years, she served on the Coordinating Committee for the Consumer Liaison Group associated with ISO-NE, her local grid operator. She teaches courses and presents workshops on the electric grid. She and her husband George live in Vermont. They have two children and four grandchildren who live in the New York City area. Contact her at meredithangwin@gmail.com

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