The Grid: The Fraying Wires between Americans and our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke, Ph.D.

America's electric grid operates on water, and Bakke states that "America runs on electricity," (p. xi). This book serves as an introduction to the electric infrastructure that powers much of the residential, commercial, military, and governmental organizations that comprise modern society and an introduction to components of that system. Bakke begins the book acknowledging the national focus on energy--the transition from fossil fuels to 'clean energy', the concerns about climate change, the pre- and post-election discussions of upgrading our aging infrastructure, and the subtle change from consolidated energy providers to a more decentralized system.

The story of the development of the grid in the United States recounts the need for electrical power in a growing nation. At its inception, electric monopolies served a predominantly urban need. The country lacked a national plan.  During the Great Depression, government projects brought electricity to rural populations to provide employment and jobs. Bakke contends that the monopolistic nature of electric utilities and the need to pay dividends to shareholders caused inertia and a stagnant culture. Lacking maintenance and a national plan, the system at the start of the millennium began to deteriorate. As a consequence, "America has the highest number of outage minutes of any developed nation--coming in at about six hours per year. . . . Compare this with Korea at 16 outage minutes a year, Italy at 51 minutes, Germany at 15, and Japan at 11" (p. xiv). Bakke describes a history of current outages and their financial GDP costs due to a cobbled-together system. In reaction, businesses, the military, and individual consumers have decided to develop their own power generation systems.

Bakke, in Chapter 1, The Way of the Wind, discusses the difficulty of retrofitting wind into an already convoluted system. Wind power contributes to the grid when the wind blows, an indeterminate occurrence. With electricity, supply matches demand; currently utilities cannot store electricity. "There are some artificial lakes pump-filled with water that folks in mountain states can call on in a pinch, but that's about as far as it goes", wrote Bakke (p. 5). The chapter also explains how electricity works, from the separation of electrons from atoms to electricity heating your toaster in a constant circle, "a giant loop that both starts and ends at the power plant or generating station" (p. 7). Hiccups happen. T. Boone Pickens planned the largest wind farm in West Texas, installing a thousand turbines, a fraction of the total project. Unfortunately, he could not get the local utility to install a large voltage line to collect and distribute the generated power and had to abandon his plan.

Chapters 2, 3, and 4 continue the story of the development of the grid. The chapters cover the invention of the battery by Alessandro Volta, the experiments and applications of Thomas Alva Edison, the inception of a hydroelectric power plant at Niagara Falls, the competition between AC and DC (alternating current and direct current) with their consequences on the grid, the commercialization of electricity by Samuel Insull, Edison's employee and founder of Chicago, Southern California, and Detroit Edison, among others. Through the age of the "captains of industry" to the great depression, America's need for electrical power grew. Chapter 4, which focuses on the 1970s and the oil embargo that shocked the United States, President Jimmy Carter passed the National Energy Act, presaged the decentralization of electric monopolies. As Bakke described, "we had our nation's first ever National Energy Plan (the National Energy Act was its legislative form)" (p. 88).

The title of Chapter 5, "Things Fall Apart", provides the most detailed account of the east coast blackout of 2003 that I have read. It demonstrates the frailty and complexity of the grid--with a software bug and three trees bring the system to its knees. Smart meters, explained in Chapter 6, reduced the possibility of the 2003 calamity but posed invasion of privacy and intrusion issues. Using smart meters, utility have the data to monitor what we do and when we do it. Chapter 7 recounts Hurricane Sandy in the East Coast and the push to decentralize the grid by the military, universities, and other institutions.

Given privacy, security, localization,resiliency, and other issues, segments of the U. S. population argue for a reconfiguration of the entire electrical system. Some take a personal or a commercial view and try to make their energy generation as self-reliant as possible, from individuals to Google. Others look more broadly and propose a redesign of the entire grid. The Lovins', Bakke recounts, from the 1970s have advocated a change from the supply chain to a more decentralized and diversified model--designing the utility according to the location, need, and resources available. Microgrids, windmills, diesel generators, etc. meet the criteria of decentralization.

The remainder of the book, covers the efforts by utilities, the government, and companies to figure out the future of the grid and electric generation, transmission, and distribution. Bakke describes the difficulties of utilities needing to conform to governmental mandates, to confront declining use by the public, and adapt to innovations in the market. The inability to storing electricity remains a national challenge; utilities must meet supply with demand. The market is dynamic. Lockheed Martin has researched nuclear fusion. Solar continues to grow as do wind farms. Batteries now propel cars and have the potential, through cars, of being electric boxes, if enough charging stations existed--the vehicle to grid (v2G) scenario.

In the end, Bakke argues for the evolution of grid to retrofit existing technology. She advocates that all parties aim "to design a system for maximum inclusivity"  (p. 259). Similar to other decentralizing efforts, the 'have' can afford access that possibly the 'have nots' cannot.

P.S. The book quotes numerous sources but lacks footnotes. It has notes by Chapter at the end of the book that generally reference quotes of a chapter.