The EMC2 Group

A new study is out by the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers)
that reports on the stability of our electrical generation and transmission systems.
The report to say the least was less then stellar. The past 6 years as a matter of fact have been sub par as well
The grade issued was a "D"

I'm sure that everyone remembers August of 2003 when America suffered the largest black out to date. Of course this event happened shortly after the devastation of 9-11. The immediate assumption by every coherent mined person in the country and I'm sure the plant was "they got us again". What was going on never before had we felt so vulnerable on so many different levels.

The Us electrical grid is basically split into 3 grids. Which consists of nearly 160,000 miles of high-voltage (230 kilovolts and greater) transmission lines

when the grid failed during the blackout that hit the Midwest, Northeast and portions of Canada. A series of power plants and transmission lines went offline because of instability in the transmission system in three states. The loss of these plants and transmission lines led to greater instability in the regional power transmission system; within four hours, there was a rapid cascade of additional plant and transmission line outages and widespread power outages. The blackout affected as many as 50 million customers in the United States and Canada, as well as a wide range of vital services and commerce. Air and ground transportation systems shut down, trapping people far from home; drinking water systems and sewage processing plants stopped operating, manufacturing was disrupted and some emergency communications systems stopped functioning. The lost productivity and revenue have been estimated in the billions of dollars.

The new studies conclude that not much has changed for the status we have grown to find acceptable. Some of the key points of the study include

• California is expected to suffer nearly 3 times as many brown outs this year as compared to last
• With in 10 years the countries electrical supply facilities is expected to grow by 10 % the demand for electricity is expected to grow by 20%

• Nearly half of the countries electricity is produced by coal burning generation facilities. In order to keep up with the rising demand more energy needs to be produced. Last year 59 potential plants were scrapped because of the environmental concerns of burning coal.

The need for energy management has never been greater then it is right now. We need to find better cleaner ways to produce power. Energy management is an effort to better utilize our current power available. The opportunity is available to expand your contracting business by employing proven techniques used buy industrial giants to conserve power. In your conservation efforts you will help in "making the grade" of the countries power system.
Contractor Energy Management
Matthew Shields