A few days late, but last Friday night (no Katy Perry references) we had a derecho go through the area. Within 30 minutes parts of Maryland turned into scenes from a hurricane that lasts hours. Hundreds of thousands were without power. We were some of the lucky few that were spared a power outage. However with temperatures in the upper 90s, those without air conditioning were quickly feeling the heat.
I drove around Saturday morning and saw tons of downed trees, branches, and power lines. Several roads had only one lane open. Many businesses were without power. Gas shortages began as people stocked their generators or filled their cars to try and stay cool.
As of this writing, there are approximately 100,000 customers in the Baltimore metro area alone without power. BGE, our local utility company, claims to have restored power to almost 600,000 of their 1.2 million customers. So basically half their customers lost power at some point during the last 5 days. Crews have come from as far as Texas to help restore power.
What could be done to improve the US power grid? It's pretty obvious that our current system is not effective enough. A lot of places have overhead power and other utility lines. The second a tree branch falls on the wires, there goes your power. I read the other day that in Germany, the average home loses power a total of 21 minutes a year. That's pretty reliable! Now, why can't the US catch up with the rest of the world?
The other option is for local utility companies to have "reserve" units. The military has them. There are volunteer fire fighters and EMTs. Why can't we have volunteer power restoration crews? Or reserve power restoration crews? I realize that a lot of the power problems can't be fixed until trees have been removed from the lines. But calling in crews from far far away isn't really cost effective. By the time the crews get here, they are tired, they have to go check in somewhere to get assignments, and are probably getting paid double or triple time to be here.
If a 30 minute storm can cause this much damage, imagine what will happen if we get a hurricane or other major disaster.
I drove around Saturday morning and saw tons of downed trees, branches, and power lines. Several roads had only one lane open. Many businesses were without power. Gas shortages began as people stocked their generators or filled their cars to try and stay cool.
As of this writing, there are approximately 100,000 customers in the Baltimore metro area alone without power. BGE, our local utility company, claims to have restored power to almost 600,000 of their 1.2 million customers. So basically half their customers lost power at some point during the last 5 days. Crews have come from as far as Texas to help restore power.
What could be done to improve the US power grid? It's pretty obvious that our current system is not effective enough. A lot of places have overhead power and other utility lines. The second a tree branch falls on the wires, there goes your power. I read the other day that in Germany, the average home loses power a total of 21 minutes a year. That's pretty reliable! Now, why can't the US catch up with the rest of the world?
The other option is for local utility companies to have "reserve" units. The military has them. There are volunteer fire fighters and EMTs. Why can't we have volunteer power restoration crews? Or reserve power restoration crews? I realize that a lot of the power problems can't be fixed until trees have been removed from the lines. But calling in crews from far far away isn't really cost effective. By the time the crews get here, they are tired, they have to go check in somewhere to get assignments, and are probably getting paid double or triple time to be here.
If a 30 minute storm can cause this much damage, imagine what will happen if we get a hurricane or other major disaster.
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