by Robert Marcos
There’s a growing shift toward locally generated power, sometimes called Distributed Energy Resources (DER) or Non-Wire Solutions, (NWS). While its far from replacing large privately-owned utilities, it represents one of the fastest-growing movements in energy policy and technology.
America’s power grids are not only expensive to build and to maintain, they’re also highly vulnerable to extreme weather events and even terrorism. One obvious solution is to generate power where its used instead of using a vast network of high-power transmission lines to convey power to where its needed.
1. Why Centralized Power is More Expensive
• Massive Infrastructure Overhead: Building and maintaining thousands of miles of high-voltage transmission lines, long-distance towers, and step-down substations requires hundreds of billions in capital expenditure—costs passed directly to ratepayer electric bills.
• Line Losses (Energy Wasted in Transit): Moving power over long distances dissipates 5% to 10% of total generated electricity as heat. Consumers pay for power that burns off before ever reaching their meters.
• Surging Interconnection Costs: Connecting a new massive utility-scale plant to the main regional grid often requires costly regional grid upgrades and takes 5 to 7 years in utility review queues.
2. Why Centralized Power is More Vulnerable
• Single Points of Failure: A single downed transmission line (from wildfires, storm winds, or physical attacks) or an issue at a regional substation can instantly sever power to hundreds of thousands of homes at once.
• Cascading Grid Outages: Interconnected long-distance grids are susceptible to wide-area blackouts when an unexpected surge or fault trips neighboring circuit breakers across entire state lines.
• Extreme Weather Exposure: High-voltage lines run through unpopulated, exposed terrain, making them far harder to monitor, protect, and quickly repair during major severe weather events.
3. How Local Power Resolves Those Issues
Locally generated power (such as rooftop solar, microgrids, and local battery storage), generates electricity close to where its needed. This obviates the need for long-distance transmission infrastructure, increases reliability, minimizes heat-loss waste, and allows local micro-grids to stay powered up even when the main regional grid goes down.