Seth Blumsack on Power Grids: Network Topology & Governance
COMPLEXITY
Black Out Vulnerabilities in Supply Chains
The power grid or at least the power grid that we have now is basically a whole bunch of very, like, tightly coupled oscillators. And because they're all interconnected, right, via this physic network, they will exert forces on one another. Just giving people a bit of exposition on critical slowing down and then how you can use this kind of ster or enhance the way that we're thinking about this with respect to black out vulnerability.
We lead our lives largely unaware of the immense effort required to support them. All of us grew up inside the so-called “Grid” — actually one of many interconnected regional power grids that electrify our modern world. The physical infrastructure and the regulatory intricacies required to keep the lights on: both have grown organically, piecemeal, in complex networks that nobody seems to fully understand. And yet, we must. Compared to life 150 years ago, we are all utterly dependent on the power grid, and learning how it operates — how tiny failures cause cascading crises, and how tense webs of collaborators make decisions on the way that electricity is priced and served — matters now more than ever.
Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield, and every other week we’ll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.
This week on Complexity, we speak with SFI External Professor Seth Blumsack (Google Scholar page), Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics and International Affairs in EME and Director of the Center for Energy Law and Policy at Penn State. In this conversation we explore the arcane yet urgent systems that comprise the power grid and how it’s operated, reminding us that the mundane is ever a deep reservoir of questions.
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Mentions and additional resources:
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Image Credit: Paul Hines
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