On February 15th, the state of Texas was plunged into a blackout unlike any other in recent American history. Alongside the blackout, there were widespread disruptions of the water service, and became very scarce as well. At the peak of the crisis over 5 million residents were left without power, 15 million without water, and many food suppliers were left without basic items such as bread, milk, and eggs. The effects of the crisis are still felt to this day.
This catastrophic failure of the power grid was caused by a gross lack of preparation on the behalf of the power providers which raises the question: “Are other cities at risk of facing the same scenario?”
The city in question? Philadelphia.
$195,000,000,000~
That figure was the estimated property damage total in the state of Texas, making this crisis single handedly the costliest disaster in Texas history.
For reference:
Hurricane Floyd (1999)-$10,000,000,000~California Wildfires (2018)-$25,000,000,000~
Hurricane Sandy (2012)-$78,000,000,000~
Hurricane Katrina (2005)-$164,000,000,000~
The difference between these aforementioned disasters and the Texas power crisis? The Texas Crisis was completely preventable, only happening due to the sheer negligence of companies attempting to save a quick buck by only solving weather related issues when they occur. This lack of preparedness was a great failure at the hands of the service providers, and even more so the authorities that failed to regulate them. But the Texas situation means a lot more than just trouble for Texas, states around the US are beginning to ask themselves the same question: “Who’s next?”
A 2005 paper* titled “Critical Power Issues in Pennsylvania” was published highlighting some of the greater flaws within the state’s infrastructure. “While Pennsylvania could benefit from new transmission construction, no new long transmission lines have made it through the approval process in the Commonwealth for nearly two decades.” This quote here is referencing the importation of electricity from long distance plants, one of the largest reasons the Texas blackout took a toll so large. The Texas grid was disconnected from the rest of the United States, forcing them to rely only on themselves during the worst hours of the blackouts. While Pennsylvania is not disconnected from the rest of the US, the state of the transmission system is rather subpar, and in a case of mass outages it may not be capable of withstand exportations of that caliber.
As shown in the graph, electrical demand has been on a continual trend upwards, and will remain to rise as the population grows and as technology advanced, with the rise of electric vehicles, the age of cryptocurrency and computer based mining, and the rise of working from home, there are an increasingly large number of factors that will soon contribute to the rise in demand for electricity, and if the power grid is not prepared to meet this demand, cities across the United States will soon face disaster.
(*It is important to note that while this paper is somewhat dated, I was not able to locate any information that suggested that any of the problems noted were being addressed, or even taken into consideration.)
“About every four months, the United States experiences a blackout large enough to darken half a million homes. In 1965, a massive blackout in New York captured the nation’s attention and started remedial action. But that was almost 40 years ago, and still we have not ended blackouts, nor even reduced their frequency significantly.“ -Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center
A more recent look at the state of the Pennsylvania power grid can be taken from the American Society of Civil Engineers, an organization that surveys and grades state-wide infrastructure around the US, and provides a standardized grade. The grading scale is as follows:
A: Exceptional, fit for the future.
B: Good, adequate for now.
C: Mediocre, requires attention.
D: Poor, at risk.
F: Failing/Critical, unfit for purpose.
With this grading in mind, in 2021, Texas received an energy grade of B+.
Pennsylvania’s most recent report card, being published in 2018, gave PA’s energy systems a C.
To conclude, while there is a great lack of preparedness when it comes to disasters in the US, PA is unlikely to face anything of the same caliber as Texas, however, this is not an excuse to leave these glaring issues unnoticed. If we allow these issues to remain, there’s no telling what the future will bring, as issues like these only get worse as time goes on.