The 21st Century Power Grid: The Future Ain't What It Used to Be

Few things are more important to our lives than the availability and reliability of electricity. Electricity is the lifeline to our homes and the lifeblood of our digital economy.

The grid is facing new challenges from extreme space and earth weather to the integration of renewables which will reduce the CO2. For the first time in my career energy independence is attainable for North America due to the abundance of natural gas and renewable resources.

Progress is being made on both demand-side management and the electrification of transportation. As energy policy makers around the world focus on reducing CO2 -- demand-side management and electric vehicles provide a unique tool to integrate more renewable resources. The renewables are intermittent and often far from load centers, thus require the buildout of new transmission lines.

Reflecting on the 1880s battle between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, Edison may have been correct that Direct Current may be the best way to move renewables to distant load centers. It is very difficult to forecast future energy needs and the best way to fill those needs. Stanford University is leading the way. On October 25, 2016 the University will kick off the “Bits and Watts” initiative to illustrate how we can use electricity wiser and how we can produce it from cleaner resources.

Speaker: Terry Boston, PJM Interconnection, retired