![]() ![]() SOMMER: No electric grid is perfect, she says, especially with climate change creating more extremes. In the back of the envelope, calculations say it's a heck of a lot cheaper to invest in some of the technologies we didn't invest in. LOTT: If we'd really saw that risk coming and we did a calculation, we might figure out it's a heck of a lot cheaper. While the cost is coming down, they're still more expensive than traditional power sources, though maybe not when you compare it to the cost of these blackouts. SOMMER: Lott says batteries can help keep crucial services running when that happens. Here we are 10 years later with an even more extreme storm. LOTT: People are going, once-in-a-century storm. SOMMER: Melissa Lott is research director at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. MELISSA LOTT: I remember being in Texas in 2011 and having a four-hour blackout in the middle of that cold storm. SOMMER: Almost 3,000 batteries are being loaned to Californians with medical needs this year because the blackouts will keep coming. ![]() It's like a large block, and it'll run my equipment for several days before a recharge is necessary. TERRANO: Probably about 18 inches square. SOMMER: Then he heard about a program from the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, in partnership with the utility PG&E, to loan out portable batteries. ![]() TERRANO: It'll take your entire monthly fuel budget. He tried using a small generator, but the fuel runs about a hundred dollars a day, and he's on a fixed income. It's a problem because he needs supplemental oxygen, and that medical equipment runs on electricity. SOMMER: Since then, Terrano faces regular blackouts during fire season when the utility turns off the power to reduce fire risk. I've lived here, oh, 50 years, and everything that I knew prior to the fire is gone. RICHARD TERRANO: It basically took an entire community and wiped it out. In Northern California, Richard Terrano's life changed when the Camp Fire burned through his town in 2018. The utility also installed battery and solar systems at other key spots, like a hospital and a high school that can serve as a warming or cooling center during extreme weather.īut sometimes during blackouts, people need solutions closer to home. Combined with the backup generator, Powers says the plant could run like this for weeks. And when the sun goes down, the battery kicks in. SOMMER: That solar energy helps run the plant. POWERS: In the event of a storm, we're prepared during those outages or those - let's say that prolonged outage. At the wastewater treatment plant in Caldwell, N.J., it's connected to solar panels. SOMMER: That hum comes from a giant battery, about as tall as a person. Powers says the storm was a wake-up call, so the utility began installing these. Billions of gallons of untreated sewage were released into waterways. SOMMER: Without power, wastewater treatment plants can't clean the sewage, and many were flooded by the storm. Generators were destroyed, and they weren't able to get diesel fuel to their generator. POWERS: It took several weeks for the state to really come back. Many had backup generators, but they didn't hold up. Superstorm Sandy had caused the largest power outage in state history, including at sewage treatment plants. SOMMER: Andrew Powers is with PSEG, an electric utility in New Jersey. Water infrastructure needs power, something that became very clear almost a decade ago in New Jersey.ĪNDREW POWERS: I'll never forget driving that day, and the whole state was just black. SOMMER: The main water treatment plant went dark, which meant the water wasn't clean enough to drink. GREG MESZAROS: Our Ullrich Treatment Plant, which is our largest plant, had experienced an electrical disruption and was out of service. Without power, there's no water, as Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros alerted the community. LAUREN SOMMER, BYLINE: As the power outage dragged on in Austin, a lot of residents worried about heat. So some communities are keeping the power on for vulnerable people and infrastructure by installing giant batteries. Extreme weather is increasingly causing these kinds of disasters around the country. Thousands of Texans still lack clean drinking water after the historic blackouts two weeks ago. ![]()
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