Power Shortages

Due to the recent heat wave, we have electric power shortages across the country. The reasons for our electric power crunch vary, but thanks to ventures capitalists installing massive numbers of gas-fired power plants, we generally have sufficient generating capacity. The problem is mostly one of transmission capacity -- getting the electric power from the power plant to the consumer. And transmission is over high-voltage power lines. The utilities are trying to get more transmission lines built, but it is a long slow expensive process: purchase of rights of way (NIMBY), public hearings, environmentalists protecting the plants, birds, and animals in the right of way, and bureaucratic hold-ups at all levels of government. Under these constraints, it is not now, and will not, be possible for the grid to match the growth in demand. Without changing those constraints (a difficult and unlikely prospect), I think the only answer is distributed generation. If you need more reliable power than the grid can provide, generate it yourself. It is that simple, and that expensive.