It was Valentines Day 2021, and as temperatures plunged into a deep freeze, Texas, the energy capital of the US, had announced rolling blackouts on millions of Texans. The contagion of the failing and archaic grid spread across the country. Over 5 million customers were without power in 13 states. People sleeping in cars, power lines blazing with fireballs, families burning fencing and toys to keep warm. As though the pandemic, riots, murder hornets and now a polar vortex in Texas were not apocalyptic enough, the power was out on millions of Americans.  

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In the nation's energy capital, Texas, rolling blackouts occurred on Valentine's Day 2021 as temperatures plunged into a deep freeze. The failing and archaic grid spread like a virus throughout the country. In 13 states, more than 5 million people were without power. People were sleeping in their cars, power lines exploded with fireballs, and families used fences and toys as heaters. As if a pandemic, riots, and murder hornet infestations, plus the polar vortex in Texas, weren't apocalyptic enough, millions of Americans lost power.

A family of eight in East Austin lit burners on their gas stove to keep warm. The dad, Brewster, quoted in The Wall Street Journal pleading “Is anyone going to help us? I have a baby in here.”   I cried when I saw this tweet.

Fast forward one year to last weekend, Friday the 13th, ooooh spooky, right? ERCOT, ironically named the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, announced that six power generation facilities had failed and tripped offline. With record high May temperatures, 20,000 megawatts of power offline for maintenance and 6 failed power plants, ERCOT pled with Texans to reduce their energy consumption to help get through power supply shortage. When we checked Poweroutages.us

On Monday, tens of thousands of customers were still without power.

Fast forward to Friday the 13th last weekend. Oooh, spooky, isn't it? Ironically named the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), announced that six power plants had failed and tripped offline. With record high temperatures in May, 20,000 megawatts of power offline for maintenance and six failed power plants, ERCOT pleaded with Texans to reduce their energy consumption to fight the power supply shortage. Tens of thousands of customers were still without power on Monday, according to Poweroutages.us.

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Why are these issues happening in the first place?

Upgrading the grid, coordinating power plant operations and then getting the electrons to the customers who need it is no easy task and we respect the monumental tasks that many hard working Americans have to keep the lights on for everyone else. However, this does not change the fact that this is an antiquated system based on 140 year old technology.  As Tim McLaughlin from Reuters points out in his incredible research and reporting, the nations transmission system needs roughly $2 trillion of improvements to be able to serve our nation properly. Obviously this is not going to happen quickly and easily without us all bearing the cost. But it doesn’t have to go this direction. Instead of upgrading the archaic and failing grid to transmit power hundreds of miles to where it is needed, we just need to produce local power onsite at homes and businesses and in local microgrids. Centralized power is a huge waste of money and resources, and is incredibly inefficient. Local distributed generation produces the actual power people need where it is needed.

The task of upgrading the power grid, coordinating power plant operations, and delivering electrons to the customers is not easy. Our team respects the monumental work that many hardworking Americans do to keep the lights on for everyone else. This does not change that this is an antiquated system based on 140-year-old technology.  According to Reuters' Tim McLaughlin, the nation's transmission system must undergo roughly $2 trillion of improvement to be able to serve our country properly. This is not going to happen quickly or easily without us all bearing the cost. But it doesn't have to go this way. Instead of upgrading the archaic and failing grid to transport power hundreds of miles to where it is needed, we should just produce local power onsite at homes and businesses and in local microgrids. Using centralized power is a huge waste of money and resources, and it is extremely inefficient. Instead, localized distributed generation provides the actual power that people need, where it is needed.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-renewables-electric-grid/

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How homeowners can ensure this never happens to them again

As Tim McLaughlin puts it, "Nobody is in charge". In order to upgrade the grid to meet the demands of modern society, the federal, state, and local governments, regulators, and grid operators and utilities need to coordinate. If there is no leadership, no one will properly implement the upgrades required in an effective way.

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This reminds me of an amazing humanitarian and mentor, Jeff Hoffman, who told a group of entrepreneurs “There is no they.” When people see a problem in society, they ask “Why don’t THEY do something about this?”. The truth is, there is no “they”. You are “they”. We are “they.” We must change this feeling of helplessness in order to take responsibility for the issues of our time. Rather, ask, “Why don't WE do something about it?” Well, we are doing something about this. OhmGrid is taking folks off the archaic grid with clean reliable guaranteed local power.

Let’s be real and describe this problem for what it is. The grid is an antiquated systems and trying to update it is like trying to update your computer from 30 years ago to run iOS, or installing more copper wires instead of cell towers. The grid is technology whose  time passed a long time ago. If super computers are in our pockets, why the heck are they charged by wires strapped to stripped trees and ancient steel structures form the industrial revolution?

We are “they” and it us up to “us” to create power for modern life.

Let's be honest and call this what it is. To try to update the grid is like trying to upgrade your computer from 30 years ago to run iOS or installing more copper wires instead of cell towers. It is a technology whose time has passed.. We now have supercomputers in our pockets, so why are they charged by wires strapped to trees and ancient steel buildings from the Industrial Revolution?

We are “they” and it is up to “us” to create power for modern life.

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Get off the grid and make power outages a thing of the past.

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