The Grid A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World 1st Edition by Phillip F Schewe ISBN 0309105145 9780309105149

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ISBN 10: 0309105145 
ISBN 13: 9780309105149
Author: Phillip F Schewe

The electrical grid goes everywhere—it’s the largest and most complex machine ever made. Yet the system is built in such a way that the bigger it gets, the more inevitable its collapse.

Named the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century by the National Academy of Engineering, the electrical grid is the largest industrial investment in the history of humankind. It reaches into your home, snakes its way to your bedroom, and climbs right up into the lamp next to your pillow. At times, it almost seems alive, like some enormous circulatory system that pumps life to big cities and the most remote rural areas.

Constructed of intricately interdependent components, the grid operates on a rapidly shrinking margin for error. Things can—and do—go wrong in this system, no matter how many preventive steps we take. Just look at the colossal 2003 blackout, when 50 million Americans lost power due to a simple error at a power plant in Ohio; or the one a month later, which blacked out 57 million Italians. And these two combined don’t even compare to the 2001 outage in India, which affected 226 million people.

The Grid A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World 1st Table of contents:

Part I: The Dawn of Electrification

• Chapter 1: The Spark: Early Discoveries
  • From static electricity to Volta’s battery.
  • Faraday’s discoveries of electromagnetism.
  • Early pioneers and their experiments.
• Chapter 2: War of the Currents: Edison vs. Tesla
  • The battle between DC and AC.
  • Key figures and companies.
  • The rise of AC as the dominant standard.
• Chapter 3: Lighting Up a Nation: The First Power Plants
  • The establishment of central power stations.
  • Early transmission lines and their limitations.
  • Bringing electricity to homes and industries.

Part II: Building the Backbone: The 20th Century Grid

• Chapter 4: The Interconnected Web: From Local to Regional
  • The necessity of connecting disparate power sources.
  • Early challenges of synchronization and load balancing.
  • The birth of regional grids.
• Chapter 5: Powering Industry and Progress
  • The role of electricity in the Industrial Revolution 2.0.
  • Major engineering feats (hydroelectric dams, large-scale power plants).
  • Government intervention and regulation (e.g., TVA in the US).
• Chapter 6: The Long Reach: Transmission Lines and Towers
  • The physics of high-voltage transmission.
  • The challenges of transmitting power over long distances.
  • The visual landscape of the grid.
• Chapter 7: Managing the Flow: Control Centers and Operators
  • The unsung heroes who manage the grid.
  • The complexity of real-time balancing.
  • Early analog systems and their evolution.

Part III: The Modern Grid: Challenges and Transformations

• Chapter 8: Blackouts and Vulnerabilities
  • Major historical blackouts (e.g., Northeast Blackout of 2003).
  • Causes of grid failures (natural disasters, equipment failure, human error, cyber attacks).
  • The interconnectedness as both strength and weakness.
• Chapter 9: Renewable Energy Integration
  • The rise of solar, wind, and other renewables.
  • Challenges of intermittency and distributed generation.
  • The need for grid modernization.
• Chapter 10: The Smart Grid: Hopes and Hurdles
  • What is a “smart grid”? (Sensors, automation, two-way communication).
  • Benefits (efficiency, reliability, consumer engagement).
  • Technological and regulatory challenges.
• Chapter 11: Security and Resilience
  • Threats to the grid (physical attacks, cyber warfare, EMPs).
  • Efforts to harden and secure the infrastructure.
  • The role of national security.

Part IV: The Future of Electrified Life

• Chapter 12: Beyond the Horizon: Emerging Technologies
  • Energy storage solutions (batteries, pumped hydro, etc.).
  • Microgrids and localized power.
  • Advanced transmission technologies.
• Chapter 13: Policy, People, and Power
  • The human and political dimensions of grid development.
  • Public perception and acceptance.
  • The role of policy in shaping the grid’s future.

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Tags: Phillip F Schewe, Grid, Heart