Brittany Cotton https://www.osmose.com 2m 511
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
The health and security of our lives relies on an efficient power grid. We have recently witnessed how increasing demands on power grids have led to rolling blackouts, poor sanitation, and a lower quality of life. Even third world countries have electric power on demand and often use it for electric shower heads, lighting, refrigeration, and stoves even if they lack more sophisticated devices.
As technology servers become more integrated into every day life, the demands on our power grids will continue to increase at exponential levels. Reaching energy sustainability by increasing the efficiency of our power grids is a critical goal heading into the future.
How Does the Power Grid Affect Us Daily?
We don’t often think about the extent we depend on power grids unless we live in Puerto Rico or remote areas where the power is frequently lost due to severe weather. However, when you think about it, people are constantly working to provide us with products and services each day.
Most of these products and services rely on technology to complete the work. A restaurant may have to close when credit card machines and refrigeration are down. Factories have to close shop and won’t be able to produce many of the products we enjoy each day. Basic lighting is necessary for just about any type of employment in the evening.
Society slows down and screeches to a halt when power grid energy supplies are sapped. Police have to go out to major intersections and manually direct traffic just to prevent accidents. We lose all sense of time and order, and chaos ensues.
The Future of Power Grids Based on Current Trends
In the future, power grids will become smarter and more efficient at managing energy. They will be able to store power during off-hours in the remote facilities where demand is the highest to ensure availability at peak hours.
Power grids will also become smart enough to decide whether a home is using excessive appliances and limit their use to ensure more uniform availability. Government agencies are already inspecting Bitcoin mining facilities to determine whether inordinate amounts of electricity are being consumed and putting the integrity of the power grids in danger.
In the future, reliance on alternative energy will increase as electricity become more expensive. Residents will store more of their own power at their homes and sell back power to the grid. These trends are already in motion and will simply increase over time to match the wave of residential solar power installations in Europe.
There are even companies, such as Osmose, that are leading the way in creating innovative solutions to power grid infrastructure maintenance. By increasing the longevity and efficiency of the cables and poles that transmit electricity, the power grids will continue to improve their efficiency.
More appliances and machinery that rely on power grids will also evolve to use power with greater efficiency by incorporation of microprocessors that eliminate waste by shutting down on their own when power is no longer needed or cycling in a manner that reduces energy consumption.
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