grid reliability
In North Dakota, Will Wind Keep The Lights On?
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Wind farms are popping up all over America’s heartland. But as the number of new towers grows, so too do concerns over the reliability of the electric grid.
Energy Explained
Energy Explained: Where Does It Come From And How Much Do We Use?
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Nothing in our world – cars, coffee, cat videos, canned pineapple – would exist without energy. But although energy makes everything work, most of us don’t know answers to even the most fundamental questions: How much energy do we use? And where does our energy come from? This animated video looks at how our energy sources and uses vary across time and geography.
electric grid
Video: Our Relationship With Energy Is Broken, So Let’s Fix It
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Some people are obsessed with energy. Some are beyond bored. Others are bursting with questions. And more often than not, people talk about energy as if it’s a friend they haven’t talked to in years and keep meaning to call…but never do. This talk looks at how our relationship with energy is broken, and what we can do to fix it.
Audio
Learning How To Adapt To More Renewables As “Duck Curve” Deepens
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The duck curve has become shorthand for the challenges that utilities face as they add more solar power and other renewables to the grid. Why are power regulators across the country talking about it more and more?
Audio
The Electricity Mix In The Western Grid Is Changing Before Our Eyes
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How we get electricity in the West is changing. Fast. New projections put 2016 as the biggest year ever for natural gas-fired power plants. But that’s just the beginning of the story.
Arizona
Getting Paid To Soak Up California Solar
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The people who run our electricity grids are trying to figure out what to do with solar and wind power that is generated when no one needs it. Take California – there’s enough solar there now to serve more than three million homes. But during the day, especially in the spring, demand is low and generation is high. So, that clean power has to be sent elsewhere. Right now, its going across state lines to Arizona.
utility
“When the snow’s blowing, we go to work”: The Linemen Who Keep Your Lights On
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Whether your state gets its energy from coal or wind power, someone has to maintain the miles of power lines that deliver electricity to your home. One of those people is Kevin Hinrichs, a lineman with Xcel Energy in Colorado. He’s repaired lines in snowstorms and heat waves — even under gunfire.
Educator Resources
Electricity Losses State By State: Interactive
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As part of our IE Questions project, Inside Energy investigated how much energy is lost as electricity travels from a power plant to the plug in your home. In the U.S., five to six percent of the energy in electricity is lost during transmission and distribution, but that varies widely state-to-state and year-to-year. See how your home state measures up.
Audio
Hacking The Grid: Rural Colorado And The Realities Of Cybersecurity
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Cybersecurity experts like to divide the world into two categories: Those who have been hacked, and those who have been hacked but just don’t know it yet. As the electric grid gets digitized, it becomes increasingly vulnerable to hackers. We know hackers are getting onto the grid. So how big of a threat do they really pose?
