Michigan Needs Changes for Electric Grid Resiliency: Part I
by Mike Buza, Michigan Chapter Legislative Chair
The electric grid in Michigan is in serious need of updating to provide both resilience against severe weather and move toward the adoption of sustainable energy sources. No matter what we do, we are in for a bumpy ride for the transition. How bumpy depends on the decisions we make now and how quickly we act. The longer we wait to make the transition, the more vulnerable our grid will be to increasingly violent storms.
For decades, Michigan utility regulators have rewarded the power companies with rate increases for building new power plants instead of updating the grid, leaving portions of the grid old and fragile. Increased tree trimming alone is inadequate for needed resiliency against the coming storms. Burying power lines and trimming more trees may improve Michigan's failure-prone electric grid, experts say - mlive.com Other parts of the country can teach us valuable lessons.
According to Katherine Blunt's book "California's Burning," PG&E was responsible for starting many of the wildfires in California because storms knocked down deteriorating power lines, causing sparks that ignited dry vegetation. PG&E ultimately declared bankruptcy twice after being sued because trees fell on electrical lines and caused devastating wildfires. CEO Patti Poppe (former CEO of Consumers Energy) announced in 2021 that PG&E would be burying all 10,000 miles of their power lines. While this is an extremely expensive proposition, it is the only one that can eliminate the risk of fires from the power lines. Consumers Energy is following its former CEO's lead by proposing to bury 400 miles of power lines each year.
Puerto Rico’s entire electrical grid was destroyed by hurricanes twice. The Commonwealth has decided to start making greater use of microgrids that will be entirely solar-powered. These distributed clean energy facilities create much more resilience and isolate power outages. The move improves business opportunities and health care as well. Hawaii and California are setting up legal structures to make microgrids possible in their states. State leaders in each of these have decided to take these extraordinary actions because of crushing blows to their infrastructure due to the effects of global warming in their State.
Michigan must set up different legal structures to make these kinds of improvements. The weather of the future will become more extreme and Michigan's often antiquated and fragile grid is not up to the task. Changes are needed and fast.
These kinds of changes will not come cheap but the alternative of continuing with fossil fuel-derived electricity will be even more costly, with increased storm damage and health costs just to name two impacts. However, renewable power generation will offset the expenses to the customer for building a 21st-century electric distribution system. Solar and wind are the cheapest forms of electricity production, and the costs are expected to drop.
The grid needed for renewable energy will be a different one. There will not be huge centralized power plants. These more distributed sources will help make the grid more resilient.
To deal with the climate crisis, we will have to live differently. We cannot just electrify everything and continue business as usual. As a University of Michigan article explains, there needs to be the resources of five Earth equivalents if everyone on the planet achieves American-like lifestyles. It is like a credit card. You can live beyond your means for a while, but eventually the bill comes due. The Earth is telling us the bill is now due. We will have to cut down on our transportation wherever possible. We have to live a less extravagant lifestyle in general. We need to do what we can to take the stress off the grid.
Comments can be sent to Mike Buza at theoriginalzuba@yahoo.com