Task force recommends protecting electrical grid from storms

Plan focuses on technology

Steve Hawley, Apr 22, 09.

The Mayor’s Task Force on Electric Reliability released a report on Tuesday recommending several changes to protect Houston’s electrical grid from storms such as Hurricane Ike.

An email from the mayor’s office states, “The plan places emphasis on the use of new computer technology that can re-route circuits and improve overall reliability of the system.” It also states that CenterPoint Energy is working to implement the plan and hopes to obtain federal stimulus funding for portions of the project.

The plan includes:

1. Selective placement of electrical distribution lines underground when other underground infrastructure is being planned.
2. Installation of modern intelligent “mid-grid” innovations that use computing technology to reroute circuitry following an outage.
3. Home or business based generation that gives users options to purchase from the grid or manufacture their own power (i.e., auxiliary generation or solar power) and return power to the grid to support essential systems during widespread power outages.
4. Creation of an internet portal that educates consumers on incentives and tradeoffs of a menu of supplemental “personal power choices”. Schools are being invited to participate by creating teaching modules that families can use to perform their own electricity fitness exercise.
5. Development of a web-based portal through which citizens can submit time-stamped, GPS (Global Positioning System)-stamped photographs of damaged power lines, which will assist line workers in emergency response.

The report states that the primary cause of the grid failure after Hurricane Ike was falling trees, rather than wind or water. Consequently, it recommends species-sensitive vegetation management near power lines, since some species are sturdier than others. The report notes that burying the entire electrical grid would require an estimated $35 billion, a cost it describes as “prohibitive.”

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Mayor’s Task Force Report: Electric Service Reliability in the Houston Region (April 21, 2009)

(Photo credit: S. J. Alexander)