The past two weeks have been challenging for a number of people who lost power due to the set of storms that moved through the area. As NS Power resolves those issues for people, we should be looking at some of the potential impacts that may result from similar circumstances.
Let’s look at the movement away from fossil fuels. There is little doubt that we need to reduce our reliance on this kind of fuel source. Now consider this from a different viewpoint. Consider that the three most critical infrastructure sectors are energy, transportation, and telecommunications. Without these three, it is difficult to maintain livable shelter, remove yourself from danger, or summon assistance.
- How do we look at sources of power for backup services when the grid fails? Generators need to run off of something.
- What will programs look like for rural infrastructure? It is all well and good to say we should all live in concentrated urban areas, but that is (frankly) not realistic.
- How do we look at maintaining the telecommunications network during these outages? This comes down to having an adequate backup supply of power to handle longer-term outages.
If we are to make the switch towards the more electric infrastructure, then we are going to need to look at if that electric infrastructure needs to be looked at more critically. There are some tough questions to ask. Is the current arrangement that guarantees profits still in the public interest? Should the service standards for restoration of power be adjusted? There are likely others as well.