gateman9's Journal: It's not capacity, it's distribution

This is something I see a lot, and I feel I need to correct it once again.

The US is not at its generating capacity. In fact, if one looks at it, we most likely over-generate. The problem is one of distribution.

Ever since the deregulation of power companies, distribution has become a problem. There is no incentive for a state to build expensive power-lines to another state, as it will cost them a lot of money and they wouldn't immediately see a benfit.

When the federal government controlled the setup of the grid, it was always trying to ensure that the system was stable as possible. Deregulation would have been a good idea, had the population distribution stayed the same. However, things shifted and power consumption went up (thanks to the computer revolution) while the power system stayed the same.

As such, states weren't getting the system upgrades they had gotten under the federally controlled plan. So when some states come to a point of energy shortage, they build new generators, often way over the capacity required. And as for the others, they often don't have the option of more plants for various reasons, and they just hope the grid can withstand the strain of a harder pull. And when they pull too hard (blackouts last year in the Eastern US) the system fails and fails hard.

Also, it doesn't help that the current nation-wide grid is split more or less down the middle of the country.

Anyways, rememeber, it's distribution that's the problem (which stems from deregulation).

Twas a book on this, but the title escapes me at this hour. I'll update this when I figure it out.