You probably have a pretty good idea of what you last paid for a gallon of gas, right?
OK, now, how much are you paying for a kilowatt hour of electricity?
Perhaps a more difficult question.
As we place more and more demands on our electricity system, there’s evidence reliability is going down.
As part of our ongoing series about the US power grid, Inside Energy Reporter Dan Boyce says public knowledge about the grid is pretty limited.
Bill LeBlanc hits the streets every year with a video camera to chat energy with average Americans.
In different cities around the country, starting with the basics.
LEBLANC: “What exactly is electricity?”
He’s a senior advisor with ESource, a company helping utilities better understand their customers.
GIRL: “Um…
And he usually finds those customers.
GIRL: “I don’t really know.”
Don’t understand electricity.
GIRL: “I have no idea.”
Or how it gets to their house.
GUY: “It’s one of those mystic forces like magnetism or love.”
And really, most people don’t care.
GUY: “I’m spoiled, I’m American, I want my power and I want it now.”
So, a company like E-Source is helping utilities gauge customer knowledge about the grid.
Meanwhile Colorado Utilities are trying to help customers understand how utilities work.
The nonprofit Coloradans for Reliable Electricity gives presentations to Rotary Clubs and Chambers of Commerce, trying to convince them investments in the grid are just as important as investments in roads or bridges.
Executive Director Bill Vidal:
VIDAL: “That if we ignore it, if we don’t maintain it, it’s gonna change the quality of life in our country.”
Now, there are occasions when greater knowledge leads to extra road blocks for utilities.
CRITTENDON: “This is one of our neighbors, hi Shelly.”
Chelsey Crittendon and one of her other neighbors Casey Lemieux, take great pride in their little corner of Thornton, Colorado, a rapidly-growing suburb north of Denver.
They pick up whatever trash they see on the sidewalks, in between pointing out all the green space.
CRITTENDON: “There’s a really fun frisbee park…”
When they get the end of the block, smiles fade.
Looking out to an empty field where their subdivision meets several others.
A field right across from Lemieux’s house.
LEMIEUX: “And they want to put a 4-acre, 200 kilovolt substation right in the middle of 7 communities.”
A substation.
(AMBI-substation)
They’re all over, if you pay attention. Clusters of what sort of look like steel shipping containers, where power lines spring from big metal coils.
Usually surrounded by fences and signs showing a guy getting cut in half by a lightning bolt.
(AMBI)
You’re hearing another substation a few miles from the Thornton site.
And utilities need substations like these every few miles.
They take the super high voltage power from long distance power lines and step it down so we can use it in our homes.
When you get too far away from these substations, electricity just sort of pitters out, becomes less reliable.
Betty Merzayi is the transmission planning manager with Xcel energy. She says that’s starting to happen in Thornton.
MERZAYI: “We’re already having problems with our overloads on existing systems.”
She says the utility has been trying to get a substation built in that neighborhood for about 10 years.
Part of the reason it’s taken so long is residents keep saying, not in my backyard.
LEMIEUX: “We understand the need for it, what we don’t understand is the location you’ve selected.”
CRITTENDON: “Why do they feel they need to build in any neighborhood, not just our neighborhood but any neighborhood.”
More substations mean greater reliability, but the problem with grid reliability is much bigger than this.
The grid is old and needs updating -- how do you get ratepayers on board with that challenge?
Well, there is another technology which could achieve that double-whammy of greater grid knowledge and fewer power outages.
LEBLANC: “So, if you could control your energy using equipment with your smartphone would that be a good thing?”
WOMAN: “Oh, I think that would be a great thing.”
Bill LeBlanc, the guy who makes those energy question videos, he says so-called smart meters in people’s homes instantly tell utilities when power is out in an area
LEBLANC: “They can see that immediately on a computer. They can go out and figure out how to fix it."
The way it works now is utilities need to wait for a phone call on an outage.
But, not everyone is ready to jump on board with all of this just yet.
LEBLANC: “Would you be interested in a two-way communicating thermostat in your house.”
WOMAN: “Really, I just want a two-way communicating boyfriend at this point.”
The hurdles holding back a smart grid revolution.
For Inside Energy, I’m Dan Boyce
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In the next story in this series, we look into why it will be so hard to install a smart grid.
Inside Energy is a public media collaboration focusing on America’s energy issues.
