Power Grids

There’s nothing magical about maintaining an electric power grid. In spite of that Texas’s grid is in trouble once again. They obviously have deep seated problems they haven’t dealt with. One key issue is that they don’t seem to be in the business of delivering electric power. They are in the money making business. When a section of the grid goes down and electricity skyrockets in price, they make money. 

Texas, being its own separate grid, is showing it’s weaknesses first. The rest of the country isn’t too far behind. The bulk of our national grid was set up years ago for conditions that no longer exist. Investment in new equipment lags. There are improvements happening, but they aren’t happening fast enough.

One thing that’s going to quickly show the weakness is the system is the rapid growth of electric car sales. With the current price of gasoline electric cars are more popular than ever. 

Just to make things more interesting, some places are making off-grid living illegal. Don’t let that stop you from adding some solar. I’ve seen really beefy solar electric systems mounted on utility trailers. They can then connect to the house like you’d connect a backup generator. 

My whole solar electric system was put in years ago with me doing all the work myself. It was totally legal too. The catch is that it does not tie into the grid. I can charge the battery bank from the grid, but can’t sell power back to the company. The electric company doesn’t even know my system exists. I benefited from state laws that allow home owners to do their own electrical work. 

Even having my own moderate sized solar electric system isn’t security enough for me. Heat, cooking, and water can all be provided with no electric power at all. It’s more work, but totally doable. 

It might be worth looking into your own needs. Infrastructure looks to be pretty shaky in the near term.

-Sixbears