That's what ends up happening after bad hurricanes (everyone running generators) & it's dangerous as well bc of CO2 poisoning in people who don't realize they can't bring the generator indoors. I've also seen accidents in the local (FL) news where the generators catch on fire.
Doesn't the economy of scale apply to the renewables just as much as it does to fossil fuel energy sources? Even if a set of rooftop solar panels is as energy efficient as a similarly priced solar farm, surely there must be significant additional expenses in maintenance and power routing systems.
@@user-qb2de4gn3g It does. That's a con of "microgrid" in general. (The video goes over the pros) I am saying if you must get microgrid -- because your govt is incompetent, your power company is greedy, or you live middle of nowhere -- set up "renewable microgrid".
Blackout time in France 46 minutes a year. Blackout time in Germany 13 minutes a year. Black out time in the US ... over 240 minutes a year. Buried power lines is part of the reason
@@surfie007 Yeah but even in densely populated areas you have much more power lines over ground in the US. I live in a small town in Germany and I know one street in the next village that has power lines over ground. It is very rare even for not densely populated areas hear aswell.
@Chosen One my street is supplied by a 10 kV overhead wire, a km away is a 220 kV transmission line. We have a shitload of squirrels and there was never an issue.
Title: "How to squirrel proof the electrical grid" Talking points: Doesn't mention how to squirrel proof the electrical grid. Good thing you can watch a 3m39s video in 1m49s.
@@esnahn yes it is. You squirrel-proof the power grid by making it less vulnerable to local damage due to squirrels, and the video explains how to do that. A decentralized system sustains local outages by letting all the rest of the system fill in. You build a decentralized system by establishing a lot of microgrids that are interconnected (basically). That avoids the problem of whole towns being connected with just one big line, through just one transformator, where everything fails if that one connection to the power distribution system fails. It's a lot like you can't break the internet by attacking the dns server your traffic usually runs trough, because it's not like all the traffic of the internet runs through that one server, or even yours has to - there are more then enough dns servers to jump in for you until the usual one is fixed. You probably didn't even notice when you got relayed to a different one.
@@esnahn Ah, I understand where you come from. Yes, a decentralized system is theoretically possible without redundancy, but redundancy is usually implied. In our case, redundency is given due to the physical properties of power grids. If you have a sufficiently interconnected grid that also has many power sources distributed over its area (i.e. many microgrids connected in a net-like structure), failure of one power plant, or one connection, just drops the voltage in the entire grid by a negligable amount. ...Provided there aren't any additional physics issues like power spikes from a single failure that lead other stuff to fail es well, but how to prevent that is an entirely different topic. So, coming back to what we've been talking about in the first place, "if one micro grid fails", that would mean that its power source can't provide power to the big grid anymore, and the households connected to this micro grid can't get their power from this local source. But the connections to all the other micro grids (or to put it differently, the connections with the entire interconnected big grid) still exist, and the voltage in the entire grid drops slightly due to the loss of this one source, but nobody has a power outage. In contrast, the current structure of the grid, while being somewhat decentralized as a whole, tends to have a lot of tree-like sections where one blown connection at the "stem" of the tree creates a significant outage. That can either be solved by changing the structure of the grid directly, which just costs a lot of money and gives you absolutely nothing apart from preventing this type of outages, or by establishing a lot of so-called micro grids and connect them to the existing grid. That way, you make the system more resilient just as well, but as a byproduct of a change that is already economically feasible in many cases, and you are even pursuing a route that will create a far more resilient network with less additional connections needed then the other approach ever could, because you are adding new power sources. That's just an entirely different quality of decentralization and redundancy then you'd get with the conventional approach (just get more redundant connections into the grid), which will not happen anyway on a large scale, because nobody will pay for a huge project that requires basically the same hustle you had when you layed down the cables under the city (and to the city) all over again, but this time you have to do it in a fully developed city that kinda needs it streets and doesn't want them to change into a contruction site. New power sources can sometimes even be connected to the grid through existing lines, which is just an additional advantage of the idea to use micro grids to make the existing grid more resilient. The internet is a different topic which I just used to illustrate, but yes, there are big cables you could attack, for example the quite centralized connections between europe and north america.
As a kid growing up in Michigan, I remember the BOOM of exploding transformers from squirrels, and on occasion, seeing the tail hanging from the box. This video was way too short though...
@@Munchausenification It's mostly industries, malls, schools which mounted solar panels on their roofs and then sell the extra energy to the grid. The advantage here is that we have over 300 days of sunshine per year and rarely any dark overcast days.
@@MrAmgadHasan Yes, you're right of course, but microgrids were very quick to build, while new plants needed years to plan and build. They held Fort Apache until reinforcements arrived.
They don't want to save squirrels. They need to sell you compact diesel generatiors (instead of centralised gas stations), solar pannels that effective in limited amount of areas and li-ion house battaries that are unable to be recycled.
I'm really surprised this is such a short video. There's so much to be said about how the grid works, why it works that way, and ultimately what keeps us from improving it.
Thanks for showcasing our industry. We provide free microgrids for multi-family buildings and we divide up the wholesale payments between tenants and owners. At Zomepower - Our motivation is moving the residential power consumption to a renewable electric grid and reducing the pollution from peaker plant generation. The wholesale market pays for all the equipment and the installation. We added the technology to make it easy to equip entire buildings secure and loved by tenants. We just need more landlords to care about the environment.
Here's a bright idea; put power lines underground! That way a falling tree of a heavy storm can't really to that much damage. It's a daunting task for the USA, but as a European I can tell you that it works ;)
In New York City, the powerlines are underground, but power outages still occur. I like the micro grid concept. We really need to implement this across the country.
@@Shadenium1 There isn't much info to compile about micro-grids, as this infrastructure is still relatively innovative and many power companies don't want decentralized grids, as gaining a monopoly on a city's electricity would be much more competitive in this situation.
As an engineer that specializes in microgrids, I felt like this left more questions than answers and did more harm than good in misinforming the public. The one thing that wasn’t even mentioned was cost. Microgrids cost 10x what you pay for electricity today. Kinda disappointed with Vox on this piece.
There are 250 million cars in the US. If you switch them to electric cars and use part of their battery (5 to 20%) if you don't need it (most of the time cars park and barely use their full range), for grid storage, you could easily store and provide 2 to 4 TWh each day. The US uses around 12 TWh a day on average, most of it during the day.
I think Tesla and Siemens energy storage solutions will get there before the consumers are willingly switch to electric car. Then we will dealt with batteries waste in another 20 years when the current bulk lithium ion batteries reached its life span.
I'm all about decentralized energy infrastructure, but another big factor is switching from AC back to DC to provide energy from your home back into the grid. Its doable obviously since power plants provide electricity to the masses, but it would be quite expensive. My vote would be to do it, but I think it is important for people to understand the drawbacks of what they're asking for.
Squirrels are my natural enemy. I'm a Transmission/Distribution electrical engineer. Neat video but waaaaaay over simplified. To make micro distribution grids possible we HAVE to make our current grid smarter. Most of the technology I'm replacing is from the 1960's and 70's. Its going to take a huge effort to get to the point where we can start to utilize micro grids on a national scale. I should know, Ive been working on it since 2007.
This is Larry. he’s a squirrel. he likes nuts. in 2019 he went into an Electric box in Kettering ohlo and in that exact second before he touch the wires he thought it was nuts inside but instead of 100,000 V went to his body instantly killing him from electrocution. So RIP Larry
We could also move power lines underground. Huge cost I know, but for areas that regularly deal with storms that cause power outages you could weigh the costs of continuously replacing the above power lines after a storm with installing underground power lines
My university recently went fully off the grid for power. They generate their entire power from renewable energy and store it on batteries. They also have a backup power generator that can power the entire campus if needed.
Dear USA, if you would build houses out of real construction material and not with paper and install the powerlines in the ground, there wouldn't be any problems with animals and less with weather.
This is really superficial. The "monopoly" problem (regulatory capture) isn't really an accurate description of the barriers to microgrid adoption. If those people with means create microgrids and are paid for the energy they backfeed into the grid, the utility companies will struggle to pay for infrastructure maintenance and improvement.* If microgrid owners don't receive compensation for the power they feed back in, they may decide to opt out of grid tied power all together. Then there's the cost of managing the flow of power from thousands of microgrids, the need to maintain "peaker" fossil fuel plants to keep up with demand spikes, and the resource costs of thousands of new battery banks. I love alternative energy sources, but nothing is free. As we transition to a more renewable electrical system, we have to weigh costs and benefits to all people, not just those fortunate enough to afford early adoption. *PG&E's infrastructure problems are NOT related to microgrids.
We were caught up in that huge blackout in 2003. Most of the NE USA and parts of Canada were out for days. Why? Because a power line belonging to First Energy drooped into some overgrown bushes and due to a bug in the system, the operators at FE were never warned to divert power away from the overload in the bushes. There was one house in my town with power. They had installed 6 huge solar panels on the side of their house back when solar wasn't cheap at all. It was "an experimental thing" they told my mom when she asked them about it. It's been at least 35 years since they built their house, and not only are they still going strong, and never get a bill from First Energy, but sometimes during the summer First Energy asks to draw from their grid! And this is in Toledo, Ohio. We have brutal winters. Why oh why can't we fix our grids???
I used to work for an Australian startup that created technologies to manage the storage and selling of excess renewable energy from homes. It was pretty fascinating to see
You can't store excess renewable energy unless you buy those giant lithium batteries that cost a fortune and are not reliable. What fascinates me is that people think this is a viable solution.
There's definitively something wrong with how this video ends. Was it by mistake? If someone wants at least a little bit of extra info that should have been there: "it's worried of power changing direction of flow because this makes the current electrical protections on the system unreliable, thus the grid becomes dangerous in case of faults along the line (not acceptable by regulations)
Is energy storage through batteries scalable, effective, and practical? Also, in my state, at least, we're charged a fee to have local generating solutions, such as solar. How practical is a microgrid solution when dealing with utilities that gouge in that way? "Oh, we had a blackout and your stored energy allowed you to continue to have power and share it with your neighbors. Here's a $500 charge for that, thank you!" - WE Energies (probably)
Already happening in Australia. However its expensive to store power and any excess power will get little in return. The transition is currently too expensive to enforce by government, some people will lose jobs and companies will lose profits.
0:29 That graph probably isn't a direct correlation with weather. Over time, we've increased the size of urban areas (more buildings that rely on electricity). So overall, more buildings with electricity, means a higher blackout rate because the chances of it happening are way higher.
The problem isn't just with regulation. It's really expensive to store power, and batteries actually waste a lot of it. This is why we need things like hydro and fossil fuels, so that there are reliable sources when it isn't windy or sunny and when there aren't enough batteries
I have a genset at home with a drum full of gasoline in my yard. Almost every households here owns one. I live in a quite remote countryside and power outage is a common occurence, so we just live with it and adapt. That's why the idea of having constant electricity running on your house feels like a luxury for me
The blackout in PR lasted *for* months not four. Some people didn't have power for over a year. This week's earthquakes caused another island wide blackout. More people won't have power indefinitely.
This video was way too short and misses the entire point that a person who owns solar panels can sell their power back to the grid. The American system of power is really cool and complex. You can also go into how power is bid on both as a buyer and seller.
You have to turn off your solar that feeds to the grid during a power outage. It's the law. It is too dangerous for utility workers to work on the lines if solar is on. If you don't shut it down, it will be shut down for you, and you will pay big $$.
Not your best video - this video pretty much is trying to say the only reason we don't have micro-grids that will save all outages is because of "politics" and "old business models". First of all let's make it clear that if every home was powered by personal diesel generators, the emissions, cost, and inefficiencies would be through the roof, much more than a few centralized plants. So, that means it must rely on renewables - such as wind and solar. There are very few locations around the world in developed countries where solar and wind itself can sustain even an entire house - let alone other people. And if I don't have sun where I am, what makes me think the guy who lives even 30kms away has it? If we are talking longer distances, don't forget transmission losses. Either way - this still suffers the same issue if a tree knocks out a line near the centralized distributor. And lastly - homes can "store" electricity? Well so can powerplants if they wished to, they would just need to spend hundreds of millions on a massive battery farm. Each household having their own batteries is even more inefficient, bad for the environment vs. on-demand usage, and don't forget even costlier.
What it essentially does is trade a small number of points of failure with severe consequences for many more points of failure with less severe consequences. With a microgrid system you'd expect there to be more failures, after all, there's more equipment to go wrong, but each failure only effects a small area as opposed to the catastrophic cascade that can happen. So it's a trade off. I think it's unfair to demonise centralised power distribution in this way. Big power plants tend to be more efficient, be they fossil, nuclear or renewable, and having fewer points of failure does mean a lower maintenance overhead. Centralised grids can also take steps to improve resiliency, and possibly for less than a microgrid model depending on available generation and consumption patterns. Consumer needs are also different, while the energy needed to run a few residences may be able to be generated locally, industry and infrastructure maybe another matter. That's not to say microgrids can't be superior in some places, but I wouldn't expect them to be superior everywhere, or even for a significant majority. Also, while a lot of developing countries have seen success with microgrids, in many cases they are starting from a pretty poor and unreliable baseline. If you're getting daily blackouts from your decrepit centralised power grid, or have practically no electricity at all, even a fairly unreliable system by developed world standards is a vast improvement. The lower demand and willingness to be more flexible with consumption must also be taken into account.
Please explain to me how you intend to store such a large amount of power inside a capacitor over a 10 to 20 year. When lithium batteries lose their power capacity over time, especially after constant use. How!?
Reminds me of the one time a Dutch train hit a little rabbit. You would assume it isn't a problem, but the rabbit apparently had hit the break wires or the tubes with breakfluid. As a consequence, the train couldn't continue its trip, cause mass chaos.
The problem is that microgrids today are inefficient and are only reliable for shorter periods of time. Until it becomes cheaper and more reliable I'll be sticking with the norm
It happens but less. Blackout time in France 46 minutes a year. Blackout time in Germany 13 minutes a year. Black out time in the US ... over 240 minutes a year.
Distributed systems are interesting but much much more difficult to run, one of the big upside of having less power lines is that you can optimize better the you have. Basically new Jersey with solar and batteries at every home would be a big net of heat dissipation without much efficiency. There is a reason we try to increase public transportation compared to individual cars. Don't get me wrong those technologies are interesting and partly needed, but the future will probably look a bit more centralised than distributed. Even if we try to further increase redundancy right now
But... you never said "How to squirrel-proof the power grid"... You were talking about sustainability and weather related power outages. Even with micro grids a squirrel can cause a blackout since the wires are still the same wires.
The power company moved the transformer from our backyard. We feed wildlife and they kept shorting the leads in impressive explosions. Three times in four years.
A power line has a limit for current going through untill it is going to break. Bad power grids do not distribute the current well enough, a spike in current or a power line outage can disable or destroy other lines connected to it. Microgrids can reduce the strain on nationwide grids if implemented correctly. Unfortunatly some locations provide better generation capacity for renewables than others. The sea can for example support wind power while deserts can produce solar power. When it comed to fossile or nuclear power generation methods, small units are inefficient and therefore make no economic sense. So only renewables which can be implemented into a city without causing disturbance are eligable. The only type that fulfills theese criteria in the moderate and sub-tropical climate zone known to me are solar panels with wind turbines outside of local consumtion areas supporting them. Generators with power-heat coupleing are also used to meet a towns demand as well as garbage incinerator power plants and gas generators in the local water treatment plant. If sufficient and cost efficient storage technology was available, the grid strain could be reduced and spaced out over time. It is the last missing pice for a truely next-generation energy distribution system
Press F for Larry, the squirrel who thought the electric box was an acorn.
Thành Đạt Lê F
Him dying was really funny
F
Larry, the squirrel who wasn't doing well in basic geometry.
F
Wish this was a bit longer and more thorough
The video was so rushed I dont know why they even uploaded it.
@@BasBruurs
But they could explain that those batteries are already cheaper than using nuclear for example.
Yes, It felt like it ended abruptly without giving much info about anything.
Definitely a rushed video. Probably the worst one they've done :/
I wish it wasn't cartoonish
Microgrid only makes sense with renewables. If everyone start running their own diesel generators, it is going to be worse than today.
That's what ends up happening after bad hurricanes (everyone running generators) & it's dangerous as well bc of CO2 poisoning in people who don't realize they can't bring the generator indoors. I've also seen accidents in the local (FL) news where the generators catch on fire.
Doesn't the economy of scale apply to the renewables just as much as it does to fossil fuel energy sources? Even if a set of rooftop solar panels is as energy efficient as a similarly priced solar farm, surely there must be significant additional expenses in maintenance and power routing systems.
@@user-qb2de4gn3g It does. That's a con of "microgrid" in general. (The video goes over the pros)
I am saying if you must get microgrid -- because your govt is incompetent, your power company is greedy, or you live middle of nowhere -- set up "renewable microgrid".
Nope we can use technologies like ‘KAALINK' that capture all pollutants of a diesel generator and we can convert that into Black ink
@@amey_gad just need to do it then, but how many emergency generators have that option intergrated?
⚡️: Exists
🐿: It’s free real estate
Squirrels strong together
not funny
Haha.
Snafu, didn’t ask
Most powerlines in european cities and towns are underground.
Blackout time in France 46 minutes a year.
Blackout time in Germany 13 minutes a year.
Black out time in the US ... over 240 minutes a year.
Buried power lines is part of the reason
“I think” = “I don’t know but I’m gonna comment anyway”
That’s because Europe is a smaller, more densely packed place where underground lines make much more sense.
@@claireconover
?
Nobody wrote "I think".
@@surfie007
Yeah but even in densely populated areas you have much more power lines over ground in the US.
I live in a small town in Germany and I know one street in the next village that has power lines over ground. It is very rare even for not densely populated areas hear aswell.
I don't think I ever heard of a power outage by squirrels in Germany 🤔
It's because they're called "Eichhörnchen" here
Kurostyle21 😂
@Grass1 Does your country not have similarly small mammals that burrow underground called moles?
Any squirrel problems in Uranus?
Hahahhahahahahah
@Chosen One my street is supplied by a 10 kV overhead wire, a km away is a 220 kV transmission line. We have a shitload of squirrels and there was never an issue.
Title: "How to squirrel proof the electrical grid"
Talking points: Doesn't mention how to squirrel proof the electrical grid.
Good thing you can watch a 3m39s video in 1m49s.
Squirrel proof - bury the power lines?
@@napdaw its not the power lines theyre getting into
The answer was decentralized power/micro grids. That way one squirrel can't threaten the power to tens of thousands of homes.
@@esnahn yes it is. You squirrel-proof the power grid by making it less vulnerable to local damage due to squirrels, and the video explains how to do that.
A decentralized system sustains local outages by letting all the rest of the system fill in.
You build a decentralized system by establishing a lot of microgrids that are interconnected (basically). That avoids the problem of whole towns being connected with just one big line, through just one transformator, where everything fails if that one connection to the power distribution system fails.
It's a lot like you can't break the internet by attacking the dns server your traffic usually runs trough, because it's not like all the traffic of the internet runs through that one server, or even yours has to - there are more then enough dns servers to jump in for you until the usual one is fixed. You probably didn't even notice when you got relayed to a different one.
@@esnahn Ah, I understand where you come from. Yes, a decentralized system is theoretically possible without redundancy, but redundancy is usually implied. In our case, redundency is given due to the physical properties of power grids. If you have a sufficiently interconnected grid that also has many power sources distributed over its area (i.e. many microgrids connected in a net-like structure), failure of one power plant, or one connection, just drops the voltage in the entire grid by a negligable amount.
...Provided there aren't any additional physics issues like power spikes from a single failure that lead other stuff to fail es well, but how to prevent that is an entirely different topic.
So, coming back to what we've been talking about in the first place, "if one micro grid fails", that would mean that its power source can't provide power to the big grid anymore, and the households connected to this micro grid can't get their power from this local source. But the connections to all the other micro grids (or to put it differently, the connections with the entire interconnected big grid) still exist, and the voltage in the entire grid drops slightly due to the loss of this one source, but nobody has a power outage.
In contrast, the current structure of the grid, while being somewhat decentralized as a whole, tends to have a lot of tree-like sections where one blown connection at the "stem" of the tree creates a significant outage. That can either be solved by changing the structure of the grid directly, which just costs a lot of money and gives you absolutely nothing apart from preventing this type of outages, or by establishing a lot of so-called micro grids and connect them to the existing grid. That way, you make the system more resilient just as well, but as a byproduct of a change that is already economically feasible in many cases, and you are even pursuing a route that will create a far more resilient network with less additional connections needed then the other approach ever could, because you are adding new power sources. That's just an entirely different quality of decentralization and redundancy then you'd get with the conventional approach (just get more redundant connections into the grid), which will not happen anyway on a large scale, because nobody will pay for a huge project that requires basically the same hustle you had when you layed down the cables under the city (and to the city) all over again, but this time you have to do it in a fully developed city that kinda needs it streets and doesn't want them to change into a contruction site.
New power sources can sometimes even be connected to the grid through existing lines, which is just an additional advantage of the idea to use micro grids to make the existing grid more resilient.
The internet is a different topic which I just used to illustrate, but yes, there are big cables you could attack, for example the quite centralized connections between europe and north america.
As a kid growing up in Michigan, I remember the BOOM of exploding transformers from squirrels, and on occasion, seeing the tail hanging from the box. This video was way too short though...
Here in Egypt, just 6 years ago power outages were almost daily, now thanks to microgrids, they have become extremely rare and the economy is surging.
oh really, thats nice to know and good for Egyptians. Now I wonder how many countries got these microgrids.
@@Munchausenification It's mostly industries, malls, schools which mounted solar panels on their roofs and then sell the extra energy to the grid. The advantage here is that we have over 300 days of sunshine per year and rarely any dark overcast days.
I think that happened because of the added capacity by building new plants and improving the existing one, not micro grids.
@@MrAmgadHasan Yes, you're right of course, but microgrids were very quick to build, while new plants needed years to plan and build. They held Fort Apache until reinforcements arrived.
Wait, by the end of the video you didn't talk about squirrels at all..
They don't want to save squirrels. They need to sell you compact diesel generatiors (instead of centralised gas stations), solar pannels that effective in limited amount of areas and li-ion house battaries that are unable to be recycled.
Larry the Squirrel: "I'm Gonna Do What's Called a Pro-Gamer Move"
I'm really surprised this is such a short video. There's so much to be said about how the grid works, why it works that way, and ultimately what keeps us from improving it.
Thanks for showcasing our industry. We provide free microgrids for multi-family buildings and we divide up the wholesale payments between tenants and owners. At Zomepower - Our motivation is moving the residential power consumption to a renewable electric grid and reducing the pollution from peaker plant generation. The wholesale market pays for all the equipment and the installation. We added the technology to make it easy to equip entire buildings secure and loved by tenants. We just need more landlords to care about the environment.
Here's a bright idea; put power lines underground! That way a falling tree of a heavy storm can't really to that much damage. It's a daunting task for the USA, but as a European I can tell you that it works ;)
In New York City, the powerlines are underground, but power outages still occur. I like the micro grid concept. We really need to implement this across the country.
Most high-voltage transmission lines in Europe are overground
I don’t downvoted often, but this.. this deserved it.
Quality > quantity.
Should we expect a follow up video?
Same, it's like the first down vote for me in a month.
@@Shadenium1 There isn't much info to compile about micro-grids, as this infrastructure is still relatively innovative and many power companies don't want decentralized grids, as gaining a monopoly on a city's electricity would be much more competitive in this situation.
The clarinet background music are amazing!
As an engineer that specializes in microgrids, I felt like this left more questions than answers and did more harm than good in misinforming the public.
The one thing that wasn’t even mentioned was cost. Microgrids cost 10x what you pay for electricity today. Kinda disappointed with Vox on this piece.
I love squirrels. 🐿️ They're smart and charming and sweet.
Didn't explain how much they can store and contribute to the grid.
There are 250 million cars in the US.
If you switch them to electric cars and use part of their battery (5 to 20%) if you don't need it (most of the time cars park and barely use their full range), for grid storage, you could easily store and provide 2 to 4 TWh each day.
The US uses around 12 TWh a day on average, most of it during the day.
I think Tesla and Siemens energy storage solutions will get there before the consumers are willingly switch to electric car. Then we will dealt with batteries waste in another 20 years when the current bulk lithium ion batteries reached its life span.
Del 1% al 2% del total diario.
Larry is my Spirit Animal
and hey while we're talking about decentralisation of energy, how about decentralisation of power? let's overthrow the government?
Meanwhile in Europe: what were blackouts again?
How?
@@wijaya4565 hfk
Yeah I don't think I've ever had a blackout and I live in England
@@wijaya4565 having the cables underground :|
@@RK-ep8qy British boomers did, that's why they're so bitter
That's pretty nuts......
Now THAT'S a bol...t statement!
@@koantao8321 underrated comment bro 😎👌😭
this quality of video is questionable and i usually expect more out of a Vox production
oh come on man be quiet😭😂
This felt like an incomplete video. C'mon VOX you can do better.
NYU kept it lit 🔥
I'm all about decentralized energy infrastructure, but another big factor is switching from AC back to DC to provide energy from your home back into the grid. Its doable obviously since power plants provide electricity to the masses, but it would be quite expensive. My vote would be to do it, but I think it is important for people to understand the drawbacks of what they're asking for.
Squirrels are my natural enemy. I'm a Transmission/Distribution electrical engineer. Neat video but waaaaaay over simplified.
To make micro distribution grids possible we HAVE to make our current grid smarter. Most of the technology I'm replacing is from the 1960's and 70's. Its going to take a huge effort to get to the point where we can start to utilize micro grids on a national scale.
I should know, Ive been working on it since 2007.
I feel their budget has dropped here a little bit.
“this is Larry. he’s a squirrel. he likes nuts. is this a nut? it was not a nut.”
Top Quote of 2020 right there
When you think the video ended too quickly, you go back and relisten to the last few sentences, a few times, and you realize the ending was perfect.
This is Larry. he’s a squirrel. he likes nuts. in 2019 he went into an Electric box in Kettering ohlo and in that exact second before he touch the wires he thought it was nuts inside but instead of 100,000 V went to his body instantly killing him from electrocution. So RIP Larry
I literally just read the Wikipedia article on Squirrel Induced Power Outages in Pennsylvania...
I was taking a shower one night and watched a squirrel get annihilated in the dark.
Next: How to Iran-proof the power grid.
But not mention Iran
Go full analogue like back in the 1950s
But also lose significant control lol
We could also move power lines underground. Huge cost I know, but for areas that regularly deal with storms that cause power outages you could weigh the costs of continuously replacing the above power lines after a storm with installing underground power lines
My university recently went fully off the grid for power. They generate their entire power from renewable energy and store it on batteries. They also have a backup power generator that can power the entire campus if needed.
Dear USA, if you would build houses out of real construction material and not with paper and install the powerlines in the ground, there wouldn't be any problems with animals and less with weather.
Nice fudged graph at 00:36 @Vox !!!
This is really superficial. The "monopoly" problem (regulatory capture) isn't really an accurate description of the barriers to microgrid adoption. If those people with means create microgrids and are paid for the energy they backfeed into the grid, the utility companies will struggle to pay for infrastructure maintenance and improvement.* If microgrid owners don't receive compensation for the power they feed back in, they may decide to opt out of grid tied power all together. Then there's the cost of managing the flow of power from thousands of microgrids, the need to maintain "peaker" fossil fuel plants to keep up with demand spikes, and the resource costs of thousands of new battery banks.
I love alternative energy sources, but nothing is free. As we transition to a more renewable electrical system, we have to weigh costs and benefits to all people, not just those fortunate enough to afford early adoption.
*PG&E's infrastructure problems are NOT related to microgrids.
The squirrel from ice age is still gonna get through the power grid somehow...
"is this a nut?"
"it was not a nut"
RIP LARRY THE SQUIRREL 🙏
Don’t blame pg and e, blame squirrels now, nice work vox👏👏😂👏😂👏
so this video doesn't explain how to keep the squirrel away from power grid.
I know right...
Just takes a hard blizzard. No power in the cold can be disastrous.
0:01 Hi, I'm Larry, the shivering squirrel. Brr, it's cold, I need a sweater.
We were caught up in that huge blackout in 2003. Most of the NE USA and parts of Canada were out for days. Why? Because a power line belonging to First Energy drooped into some overgrown bushes and due to a bug in the system, the operators at FE were never warned to divert power away from the overload in the bushes. There was one house in my town with power. They had installed 6 huge solar panels on the side of their house back when solar wasn't cheap at all. It was "an experimental thing" they told my mom when she asked them about it. It's been at least 35 years since they built their house, and not only are they still going strong, and never get a bill from First Energy, but sometimes during the summer First Energy asks to draw from their grid! And this is in Toledo, Ohio. We have brutal winters. Why oh why can't we fix our grids???
just contact idubbbz, he'll take care of those squirrels
I used to work for an Australian startup that created technologies to manage the storage and selling of excess renewable energy from homes. It was pretty fascinating to see
You can't store excess renewable energy unless you buy those giant lithium batteries that cost a fortune and are not reliable. What fascinates me is that people think this is a viable solution.
I wish I had tic tacs piped directly to my home.
Larry deserved better. :(
Micro grids are nice. They are like the Internet for electricity.
You don't f*ck with the squirrels Morty!
This is one of the most surface level Vox videos yet.
Invention? Where?!
0:05 "Is this a nut?" It was not a nut..
I wasn't prepared for that at all 😂🤣💀⚰️
wow I love the last few words did not catch it at first
There's definitively something wrong with how this video ends. Was it by mistake? If someone wants at least a little bit of extra info that should have been there: "it's worried of power changing direction of flow because this makes the current electrical protections on the system unreliable, thus the grid becomes dangerous in case of faults along the line (not acceptable by regulations)
Is energy storage through batteries scalable, effective, and practical? Also, in my state, at least, we're charged a fee to have local generating solutions, such as solar. How practical is a microgrid solution when dealing with utilities that gouge in that way?
"Oh, we had a blackout and your stored energy allowed you to continue to have power and share it with your neighbors. Here's a $500 charge for that, thank you!" - WE Energies (probably)
Instructions unclear, bit into electric box.
@Vox --- interesting info -- would have loved it if you could talk more about how micro-grids could break these old power monopolies
When the news cycle is so devoid of wars kicking off and countries catching fire that you have to resort to filler content about squirrels.
Already happening in Australia. However its expensive to store power and any excess power will get little in return. The transition is currently too expensive to enforce by government, some people will lose jobs and companies will lose profits.
I'd love to hear more about this
Please make more videos on this please
0:29 That graph probably isn't a direct correlation with weather. Over time, we've increased the size of urban areas (more buildings that rely on electricity). So overall, more buildings with electricity, means a higher blackout rate because the chances of it happening are way higher.
The problem isn't just with regulation. It's really expensive to store power, and batteries actually waste a lot of it. This is why we need things like hydro and fossil fuels, so that there are reliable sources when it isn't windy or sunny and when there aren't enough batteries
I have a genset at home with a drum full of gasoline in my yard. Almost every households here owns one. I live in a quite remote countryside and power outage is a common occurence, so we just live with it and adapt. That's why the idea of having constant electricity running on your house feels like a luxury for me
I don't see any good reason why every home and building on earth couldn't be its own electrical island; the technology exists.
The blackout in PR lasted *for* months not four. Some people didn't have power for over a year. This week's earthquakes caused another island wide blackout. More people won't have power indefinitely.
That campus was so lit 🔥🔥🔥
*Vox: Explains microgrid*
*Me: Why is this in gaming trending page!!!!!*
Thank you. Loved the graphics.
I think you guys are taking the paper cutout style a bit too far. It seems complicated to do and the charm wore off after a few videos
I literally got a power outage when watching this video.
tuff bro😭👌😎
This video was way too short and misses the entire point that a person who owns solar panels can sell their power back to the grid. The American system of power is really cool and complex. You can also go into how power is bid on both as a buyer and seller.
You have to turn off your solar that feeds to the grid during a power outage. It's the law. It is too dangerous for utility workers to work on the lines if solar is on. If you don't shut it down, it will be shut down for you, and you will pay big $$.
Not your best video - this video pretty much is trying to say the only reason we don't have micro-grids that will save all outages is because of "politics" and "old business models". First of all let's make it clear that if every home was powered by personal diesel generators, the emissions, cost, and inefficiencies would be through the roof, much more than a few centralized plants.
So, that means it must rely on renewables - such as wind and solar. There are very few locations around the world in developed countries where solar and wind itself can sustain even an entire house - let alone other people. And if I don't have sun where I am, what makes me think the guy who lives even 30kms away has it? If we are talking longer distances, don't forget transmission losses. Either way - this still suffers the same issue if a tree knocks out a line near the centralized distributor.
And lastly - homes can "store" electricity? Well so can powerplants if they wished to, they would just need to spend hundreds of millions on a massive battery farm. Each household having their own batteries is even more inefficient, bad for the environment vs. on-demand usage, and don't forget even costlier.
What it essentially does is trade a small number of points of failure with severe consequences for many more points of failure with less severe consequences. With a microgrid system you'd expect there to be more failures, after all, there's more equipment to go wrong, but each failure only effects a small area as opposed to the catastrophic cascade that can happen. So it's a trade off.
I think it's unfair to demonise centralised power distribution in this way. Big power plants tend to be more efficient, be they fossil, nuclear or renewable, and having fewer points of failure does mean a lower maintenance overhead. Centralised grids can also take steps to improve resiliency, and possibly for less than a microgrid model depending on available generation and consumption patterns. Consumer needs are also different, while the energy needed to run a few residences may be able to be generated locally, industry and infrastructure maybe another matter. That's not to say microgrids can't be superior in some places, but I wouldn't expect them to be superior everywhere, or even for a significant majority.
Also, while a lot of developing countries have seen success with microgrids, in many cases they are starting from a pretty poor and unreliable baseline. If you're getting daily blackouts from your decrepit centralised power grid, or have practically no electricity at all, even a fairly unreliable system by developed world standards is a vast improvement. The lower demand and willingness to be more flexible with consumption must also be taken into account.
I am surprised you did not make a video about Australian bushfires
Nobody:
Vox: This is Larry, he likes nuts.
it's always the same reason, progress for the betterness is blocked by greed
Please explain to me how you intend to store such a large amount of power inside a capacitor over a 10 to 20 year. When lithium batteries lose their power capacity over time, especially after constant use. How!?
RIP In Peace to Larry
Reminds me of the one time a Dutch train hit a little rabbit. You would assume it isn't a problem, but the rabbit apparently had hit the break wires or the tubes with breakfluid. As a consequence, the train couldn't continue its trip, cause mass chaos.
Thank you
The problem is that microgrids today are inefficient and are only reliable for shorter periods of time. Until it becomes cheaper and more reliable I'll be sticking with the norm
Flashback to when a squirrel bit the power lines behind my school and caused one to fall
Same happened in mine!
Europe here. Can't remember the last time I had an outage.
It happens but less.
Blackout time in France 46 minutes a year.
Blackout time in Germany 13 minutes a year.
Black out time in the US ... over 240 minutes a year.
The US has 350+ million people. Combine the blackout times of multiple EU states and you get similar times.
@@felixf4378 Not really how this works...Also, I'm from Italy and compared to the US we have literally 0 self generated power.
@@felixf4378
It's a per capita number, so it is already adjusted for population.
Distributed systems are interesting but much much more difficult to run, one of the big upside of having less power lines is that you can optimize better the you have. Basically new Jersey with solar and batteries at every home would be a big net of heat dissipation without much efficiency. There is a reason we try to increase public transportation compared to individual cars.
Don't get me wrong those technologies are interesting and partly needed, but the future will probably look a bit more centralised than distributed. Even if we try to further increase redundancy right now
Can u guys please explain the conflict going on between the US and Iran
I think I’m a squirrel because I like to *nut* from time to time.
haha!! Yes I get it!! heehee!!!!!
lolumad as a baby boomer, I’m offended by this comment.
But... you never said "How to squirrel-proof the power grid"... You were talking about sustainability and weather related power outages. Even with micro grids a squirrel can cause a blackout since the wires are still the same wires.
I thought this video had just started and suddenly it was over. More information, please
I feel proud to say that my country already came with this idea
May the force be with the squirrels
I like how nuclear was left out of the source of power but two sources of renewable where added.
The power company moved the transformer from our backyard. We feed wildlife and they kept shorting the leads in impressive explosions. Three times in four years.
I honestly thought this would be a video about Vox explaining the Iran situation
Instead, we got a video about squirrels...
Well thats vox for ya
Or create power lines underground, just as the dutch did
Underground power lines are expensive and don't max since for the large swaths of rural land in the US
Get Jo Swinson on the case
Squirrels like nuts and jellybeans, exclusively.
A power line has a limit for current going through untill it is going to break. Bad power grids do not distribute the current well enough, a spike in current or a power line outage can disable or destroy other lines connected to it. Microgrids can reduce the strain on nationwide grids if implemented correctly. Unfortunatly some locations provide better generation capacity for renewables than others. The sea can for example support wind power while deserts can produce solar power. When it comed to fossile or nuclear power generation methods, small units are inefficient and therefore make no economic sense. So only renewables which can be implemented into a city without causing disturbance are eligable. The only type that fulfills theese criteria in the moderate and sub-tropical climate zone known to me are solar panels with wind turbines outside of local consumtion areas supporting them. Generators with power-heat coupleing are also used to meet a towns demand as well as garbage incinerator power plants and gas generators in the local water treatment plant.
If sufficient and cost efficient storage technology was available, the grid strain could be reduced and spaced out over time. It is the last missing pice for a truely next-generation energy distribution system