A newly released documentary called "Grid Down Power Up" looks into the vulnerabilities that exist within the United States power grid. The issue of potential weaknesses in the grid is a new area of concern, especially for Americans that have lived through recent outages and rolling blackouts. Particularly, these have been an issue in places such as California, North Carolina and Texas.
"This greater reliance on electricity is a risk because our grid is dated, our grid is not very well protected the way it’s been constructed now and frankly, it makes it more and more vulnerable," David Tice, CEO of Paul Revere Films, said.
The consequences of long-term power outages would be extreme and very deadly, according to Tice, who stated in an interview that "[a]s many as 90% of American citizens could die if the grid goes down for an extended period of time [nine months to two years]."
He also talked about how close this came to being a reality during the last Texas winter storm, saying, "In 2010, we were four minutes and 37 seconds away from our Texas grid [one of three major power grids in the United States] going down for several weeks to several months."
For Texas residents, the winter storm of February 2021 brought frigid temperatures, icy roads and massive power outages. On Feb. 1, approximately 170,000 of Austin Energy's 350,000 customers were without power. By 7 a.m. on Feb. 2, some 154,000 Austin Energy customers remained without electricity. That same morning, 400,000 Texans were still in the dark across the entire state, The Texas Tribune reported.
In addition to hardships endured by citizens during this wintry weather event, infrastructure was also damaged as a result of the ice storm. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which runs the state’s main power grid system, experienced technical difficulties that caused many areas to experience blackouts and rolling outages throughout the event. Though their services were restored by Thursday morning, ERCOT worked through most of Wednesday to stabilize their systems while keeping safety regulations in place for all consumers.
A major water district in western Travis County experienced a severe disruption to its services when a power outage caused a pump station to shut down.
The outage, which lasted for several hours before energy officials were able to restore power, affected customers in West Lake Hills and some parts of Austin. As a result, the water district issued an urgent plea to residents: Conserve water "to ensure we do not have any interruptions to water service."
In 2021, the most recent year with data, renewable sources of energy—namely wind and solar—contributed 25% to California's total electricity generation, Fox News reported. Natural gas, however, was the largest contributor at 50%. This is a marked improvement from previous years; in 2000, for example, only 6% of in-state electricity generation came from renewables.
The increase in renewable energy production has been accompanied by a rise in zero-emission vehicle sales in California. According to state data, 19% of new car sales were zero-emission vehicles in 2021. This number has been steadily increasing since 2010 when only 2% of new car sales were zero-emission vehicles.
Last year, California's grid was pushed to its breaking point during peak energy demand. The state's independent system operator, CAISO, issued its highest level warning — an "energy emergency alert 3" — in early September, according to Fox News. This alert asked residents to maximize energy conservation and prepare for rotating outages and flex alerts that would last for more than seven consecutive days. In an effort to reduce strain on the grid, CAISO also urged people to refrain from charging their electric vehicles.
A blackout affecting 45,000 residents in Moore County, North Carolina left residents in the dark on Dec. 3, 2022, after two electrical substations were damaged from gunfire earlier that day, Fox Business reported. Schools closed their doors as temperatures dropped to near freezing and traffic control systems were knocked offline due to the power outage. Many businesses were unable to operate due to the lack of electricity, resulting in financial losses for those affected by the electrical disruption.
Outside of weather events and domestic incidents, Tice also warned of our grid's vulnerability to cyberattacks.
"One potential threat vector for the United States grid is a cyber attack," he said. "The secretary of energy, Jennifer Granholm, working under Joe Biden, has said that our adversaries [China] are already inside our grid and can shutdown our grid through malware or various worms inside our software and control systems."
Additionally, Tice notes that we rely on Chinese-manufactured parts to keep our grid functioning.
"We purchase a number of transformers, which are hard to replace, from China and we've calculated that anywhere between 200 and 300 have been purchased from China," Tice said.