Walter Yu, P.E., LEED AP

Vital to our everyday needs but suffering from innovation and development, electrical grids badly need upgrade.

The National Academy of Engineering recently named the electrical grid as its greatest technological achievement of the 20th century despite such inventions as the automobile and space program.

Whether we know it or not, the electrical grid profoundly affects our everyday lives. As we grow more reliant on electrical devices (think email, computers, etc.), the need for stable and sustainable energy sources has become more important than ever before.

The health of our electrical grids is slowly declining as demand grows but the system itself is aging without much innovation to keep up with the growing demand. As more demand is placed on the system, it grows more unstable leading to more blackouts, large inefficiencies during transmission over power lines (see photo) and be vulnerable from cyber attacks due to lack of firewalls.

The Obama administration pledged $3.4 billion to improve the health of the system and begin incorporating green technologies to solve these vulnerabilities. However, some experts estimate that the overall cost of updating the electrical grid to be over $100 billion.

The new system, dubbed the smart grid by engineers and researchers in the industry, would be able to not only push power to users but receive it back as well. Current systems only deliver energy but not allow energy to be sent back and coordinated by the grid when not in use. Having this ability would allow the grid to repair itself in the case of a black out or place more energy in its reserves for peak times during the day and seasons such as summer and winter.  This system would work similar to the battery alternator in our cars, which charge up the main battery as we drive.

In the short term, users can improve the health of the system but making small adjustments to their appliance usage. Changing to more efficient fluorescent or LED light bulbs and saving heavy usage during non-peak hours. The guidelines are the same as saving water – use less whenever possible and avoid maxing out usage during evening hours or day time hours in the summer due to air conditioning demand.

Such small but wide-spread savings across the grid can lead to big reduction in energy usage. The Department of Energy predicts that phasing out incandescent light bulbs for LED ones across the country can save up to $265 billion in energy usage, prevent the construction of 40 new power plants needed to meet future demand and cut demand by 30%. These savings would come from light bulbs everywhere, not just in our homes, but in office buildings, street lamps and outside lighting.

As our lives are becoming more wired and reliant on computers and Internet, so too has our existing electrical grid. Power utility companies rely on them to control power plants and the electrical grid. The existing grid is interconnected even though it is controlled regionally by different utility companies, all with different methods of managing security and stability on their portion of the grid. These conditions may invite disaster in the form of cyber attacks from hackers looking to control or damage our power, water and sewage systems.

Although most of us assume hackers are after information, such as with the recent Chinese cyber attacks on Google servers, but some hackers serve the interest of other countries looking to disrupt or permanently damage infrastructure systems. In short, many countries are using cyber attacks that can lead to physical damage of vital systems and pose a serious threat to national security.

Both the NSA and CIA have warned against cyber attacks and a need for increased security against foreign and domestic attacks.  Successful attacks can cause disruptions to cellphone networks, air traffic control and send financial markets into a panic. Because so many other systems rely on the electrical grid and therefore create a closed system, the health of the grid affects everything else connected to it.

In conclusion, the cost of upgrading the grid may be large but is necessary because of threats of national security and impacts it may have to our everyday lives in both the short and long-term.

While co-working with several friends in the Outer Sunset today, a friend of mine turned me onto Architecture for Humanity, an open-source architecture project placing sustainable design in the hands of those who need it in developing nations.

As Cameron Sinclair  stated in his TED talk (see video), sustainability is not about putting solar panels on expensive houses or buying a Prius, it’s about survival in the developing world.

For most of us living in developed nations, sustainability means being resourceful and reducing our impact on the environment. However, for those living in developing nations, being resourceful is a way of life.

Architecture for Humanity solicits for projects that need to be build and mobilizes designers to design them. The most important feature is that these projects are built and make a difference in the communities that receive them. The organization connects sustainable design with those who most need them.

As a civil engineer, I understand that design may not be available to everybody, especially those in developing nations. Infrastructure projects are often built for those will deep pockets who are able to foot the hefty design fees.

And rather than operating as a true non-profit, Architect for Humanity leverages private industry practice with humanitarian work to advance its cause of building projects to improve the quality of life for those getting by with less.

In conclusion, it’s inspiring to see sustainable design being applied to help those who are less fortunate.