The Fragility of The Grid
Meredith Angwin was the featured speaker at our chapter meeting on Sept 8, 2021. Her talk focused on the fragile nature of the electrical grid in the United States, and how our current electric grid is controlled by a system of insider-dominated closed meetings, constant auctions and near-miss electrical shortfalls that generate profits but do little to establish a reliable system that can withstand current and future power demands.
This is an extract from a Zoom recording of the meeting. The main part of Meredith's presentation starts at 5:00, with a Q&A session beginning at 31:30.
About the speaker: As a working chemist, Meredith Angwin headed projects that lowered pollution and increased reliability on the electric grid. Her work included pollution control for nitrogen oxides in gas-fired combustion turbines, and corrosion control in geothermal and nuclear systems. She was one of the first women to be a project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute. She led projects in renewable and nuclear energy. In the past ten years, she began to study and take part in grid oversight and governance. For four years, she served on the Coordinating Committee for the Consumer Liaison Group associated with ISO-NE, her local grid operator. She teaches courses and presents workshops on the electric grid. Meredith's newest book release - Shorting the Grid, The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid is an exposé of the insider-ruled practices of the “deregulated” areas of the United States electric grid.
Website: www.meredithangwin.com
E-mail: meredithangwin@gmail.com
Twitter: @meredithangwin
Facebook: Meredith Angwin Author