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The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future

Gretchen Bakke

3.85 · Rating details · 1,999 ratings · 294 reviews

America's electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor fit for the present. It's not just that the grid has grown old and is now in dire need of basic repair. Today, as we invest great hope in new energy sources--solar, wind, and other alternatives--the grid is what stands most firmly in the way of a brighter energy future. ...more

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Kindle Edition, 364 pages

Published July 26th 2016 by Bloomsbury USA (first published July 12th 2016)

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Dec 16, 2016 Clif Hostetler rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: current-events

This book provides a thorough explanation of both the history and the details of how the electrical power grid works. The book then proceeds to discuss prospects for its future. Anyone who is an advocate for the "greening" of the electrical power should read this book to be informed about the complexities involved in the introduction of renewable and alternative sources of power into a grid that has evolved over the years based on a concept of regulated utilities with a large central source of This book provides a thorough explanation of both the history and the details of how the electrical power grid works. The book then proceeds to discuss prospects for its future. Anyone who is an advocate for the "greening" of the electrical power should read this book to be informed about the complexities involved in the introduction of renewable and alternative sources of power into a grid that has evolved over the years based on a concept of regulated utilities with a large central source of power generation.

To put it bluntly, installation of lots of solar and wind generation will not allow coal and gas powered generation to go away any time soon. There are times when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, and many people seem to not comprehend the reality that electricity can't be stored for such times. Granted, there are some ways to store power (e.g. batteries, stored pumped hydraulic, air pressure, etc), but when it comes to grid scale and national scope there is NO feasible way to store electricity. And there is no anticipated technological break through on the horizon that's going to change this situation.

One of the popular suggestions for solving the electrical storage problem is for everyone to own electric automobiles and have them plugged into the grid whenever they're not being used. That way their unused storage could be utilized by the grid as needed. Great concept, but there's no sign of movement in that direction. Actually, Denmark made a sincere effort to move in that direction by developing a tax incentive that allowed purchase of a new electrical car at half price if the buyer promised to make the battery available to peak grid loads. The program was not successful. If the Danes can't do it, USA certainly won't be able to do it.

Some of the most interesting parts of this book are the stories of failures in the grid (i.e. blackouts). The explanation of the causes of the big northeast blackout of 2003 was of particular interest.

The discussion of vulnerabilities to terrorist attack was particularly scary. I spent much of my working career in the electrical utility field and I've heard many engineers who were concerned about attack by vandals who had knowledge of the critical points in the grid. An outstanding example of this was a sophisticated attack on an electrical substation located near San Jose, California in 2013. Attacker(s) using rifles and an informed knowledge of where to aim their shots were able to cause $15 million worth of damage.

The following is a link to an NPR Fresh Air interview with Gretchen Bakke:
http://www.npr.org/2016/08/22/4909323... ...more

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Sep 18, 2016 Scott rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This book, unfortunately, is a perfect example of a magazine article's worth of concept, analysis, and insight stretched too thinly to book length. The Bloomsbury editors -- who clearly have zero background in electricity, as a business or discipline -- failed Bakke, and failed her readers. Such a disappointment.

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Apr 29, 2016 Mary Beth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads-books

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book... I am not in any way an energy person, but this book caught my eye -- maybe for just that reason -- and I am delighted to have read it. I learned something new on almost every page. The history of the development of the electric grid in the United States fascinated me. And the inherent unplanned results of that unique history being played out today is eye-opening to be sure. Other reviewers have called this I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book... I am not in any way an energy person, but this book caught my eye -- maybe for just that reason -- and I am delighted to have read it. I learned something new on almost every page. The history of the development of the electric grid in the United States fascinated me. And the inherent unplanned results of that unique history being played out today is eye-opening to be sure. Other reviewers have called this book even-handed, but I don't really know if that is accurate. Yes, Dr. Bakke is critical of all sides of the debate concerning energy production, potential storage, distribution and regulation of energy in the United States, yet her biases are quite evident. References to the "tin-foil hat crowd" and "criminal industry leaders" don't quite match up with the terms "hippies" and "greenies" on the "other side." She speaks often of the environmental eyesores that are high voltage power lines, but never once seems to imagine that the massive, sprawling, butt-ugly, horribly-destructive wind turbine "farms" hold perhaps an even more reviled place in the minds of most "regular folks" whose lands have been overrun by them over their vehement objections and legal attempts to stop their growth. That both the ruination and disruption of formerly natural areas in the mountains, deserts and the plains being destroyed for miles upon miles by these erratically-producing and reliably unreliable turbines don't seem to register in her psyche. Other basic assumptions concerning "global-warming" (a term that seems outdated somehow) and government regulation were also telling... But I digress! So much to learn here! Electric cars and smart meters are not about transportation and accurate measurement of electricity respectively, as one might think. They are about more grid control for the power companies who can remotely operate your home thermostat to help lessen peak demand or suck stored energy out of your dormant, but connected electric car battery when they need more energy to even out the grid. Regulations passed in the 1970s are being used in ways never thought about at the time to force energy companies and customers in preferred directions which might or might not make much sense. For the first time in decades, customers are moving back to the early days of electrical usage by establishing small scale, local energy production -- nano-grids for homes and micro-grids for universities, hospitals, industrial complexes, localities, etc. This is both good and bad for the grid and for the country as a whole. Regulations are harming upkeep of the infrastructure in numerous ways and promoting useless, and sometimes dangerous, approaches to energy distribution by paying utility companies for the wrong things and not paying them for the very things that need to be done to protect the grid and its customers! Cronyism and political expediency are alive and well in the energy business in America... My favorite story of all, however, was the tale of the magical energy world that was to be created in the lucky city of Boulder, Colorado by their (then) power company Xcel in 2008. The dream of a smart grid city was way premature and totally-misconceived, and the ridiculousness of the effort is a wonderful tale of putting dreams before reality and spending lots of money for nothing... (Though a few lucky citizens were actually given hybrid/electric cars and smart appliances by the company before the project was abandoned.) Coherence and the national grid are not wedded at this point -- and never have been. What happened in Boulder is a small-scale example for the country as a whole. And how it ended there is illuminating for all of us as well -- like-minded people banding together to build their own municipal micro-grid for themselves. Too bad common sense is not high on the list for the planners of our energy future just now and the competing interests of all the parties are seemingly too overwhelming to be overcome in our present political environment despite that fact that many basic goals would be readily agreeable to almost everyone with skin in the game -- which is each of us. ...more

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Aug 18, 2016 Peter Mcloughlin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1801-to-1900, 1890-1959, 00000good-things, intellectual-history, 1960-to-1989, 1990-to-2019, american-history, general-history, nonfiction, physics

The grid is a well-done book on a topic that is not sexy. The maintenance and refiguring of the grid for newer alternative energy sources that aren't steady and reliable like fossil fuels but are unlimited and less hostage to the fortunes of foreign affairs. In addition to refiguring to new sources of power the grid is aging and falling apart. We have one of the worst records in the industrialized countries for reliable power delivery. The regulatory, economic and technological nettle which must ...more

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Jun 14, 2018 Pamela rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, american-history, science

For the first time in my life, I actually think I understand how electricity works, how it is generated, why it does what it does and how it gets to you and me from where it starts. I don't think I could clearly explain it to you but Gretchen Bakke certainly clearly explained it to me. In addition to talking about the grid as it exists today, she also gives a clear history of how we got here and a really fascinating idea of where we might be going. In fact, the major story here is where we ...more

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Mar 07, 2018 Ian Scuffling rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reality-bites, read-in-2018, long-live-digital, 21st-century

I really thought The Grid: Electrical Infrastructure for a New Era was going to be a heck of a lot more interesting and informative than it was. Another reviewer here rightly suggests that this is a book-length magazine article—Bakke circles the drain on many of her points, repeating opinions and insights ad nauseam, diluting their weight and readerly interest. This is an odd point to make about a <300 page book about something as complex and tangled as "the grid."

Bakke is successful in many I really thought The Grid: Electrical Infrastructure for a New Era was going to be a heck of a lot more interesting and informative than it was. Another reviewer here rightly suggests that this is a book-length magazine article—Bakke circles the drain on many of her points, repeating opinions and insights ad nauseam, diluting their weight and readerly interest. This is an odd point to make about a <300 page book about something as complex and tangled as "the grid."

Bakke is successful in many ways though—namely, addressing the naivety of our current push toward green energy. Perhaps I'm just more ignorant than the average individual, but I hadn't realized the extent to which inconsistency in production from renewables (particularly from wind and solar) can disrupt the grid's ability to deliver electricity—often overwhelming the system to the point that it either blacksout or the producer has to be turned off, thus wasting energy.

She's also successful in presenting a way forward; a kind of utopian vision of the future grid. An "intelligent grid" or even an "integrated grid" beyond the imagining of the "smart grid." The idea essentially boils down to applying the ideas and concepts of blockchain to the power grid. That is, decentralized power production with grid-level storage capabilities and individual production feeding into storage and grid with integrated software solutions to smooth and even out the transmission of individual-created energy. It's hard to envision getting there—one idea floating around suggests electric cars plugged into the system would be a smart way to incorporate grid-level storage to a renewable-powered electrical grid. But beyond the ideas of batteries, new and creative storage solutions need to be created. She had some interesting case uses of excess-produced energy being used to compress air into caverns, which can be tapped to produce energy when the sun's not shining or the wind's not blowing. One example had to do with a kind of salt that is turned into molten by powerful solar reflectors, which would be used to create steam after the sun has gone down.

Bakke also suggests the world of wireless power isn't far off and would further alter the way we think about the grid. We get to watch this come alive now as our smart phones are more and more able to charge by setting them down on a electromagnetic pad that is easily hidden/integrated into furniture, making wires even less visible.

Ultimately, the book just takes too long to make its points and is perhaps a little too utopic/optimistic about what is achievable in terms of regulatory reform, corporate initiative, and end-user participation. The examples of attempts to modernize the grid to meet our ever-evolving electrical needs (particularly the spectacular failure of Xcel's SmartGridCity in Boulder, CO) shows how corporate interests will always remain at odds with consumer interests, and make any swift or significant advancements either a) pointless (or detrimental) to the end-user, or b) unprofitable and thus a failure on a grand scale, or c) both.

The grid may just be an example of an America in severe decline—it was a system created ad hoc and slapdash and has basically just been getting band-aids stuck on for the past century and a half. There's insane complexity to fixing the problem, especially as it becomes more unstable and customer demands for things like renewable energy increase, and end-users leave the grid to produce their own electricity. Real reform will have to come from regulation, corporate utilities, the people who use electricity (everyone), and a sobering ability to affect change that has real foresight despite immediate (and substantial) expenses to modernize one of our biggest national weaknesses. ...more

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Sep 27, 2016 Jason Anthony rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This book represents a great idea (the need to explain how our electricity system and the grid work) in desperate need of a greater editor. The topic might not be "sexy" but that doesn't mean the writing has to be robotic and repetitive. This book was a real slog to get through and I have to admit that, despite being an academic used to dry scholarly writing, I couldn't finish this.

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Dec 11, 2016 Fraser Kinnear rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: politics-and-policy

Very interesting history lesson of how we got our current (terribly antiquated) grid, as well as the monopoly/monopsony powers the utilities running the grid have wielded. Especially interesting to me was the impact of PURPA, legislation passed in the 70s that flew under the radar but forced utilities to buy back power produced by smaller players, which allowed for today's solar-panel-on-the-home business model.

Some of the problems that we face in our grid today are also super interesting: all ...more

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Jan 15, 2017 Meghan rated it liked it

Shelves: sustainability-esg, 2017

Very interesting overview of the grid and its many ailments, as well as a meditation on our relationship with electricity. I'm surprised I knew as little about the grid as I did going into this, considering it's the infrastructure that allows for modern life to be what it is.

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Mar 09, 2017 Kelly Kuwabara rated it really liked it

I thought this book certainly lived up to its promise - it was at least as good a history, exposition, and analysis of our electrical grid as I expected; an in fact was both more thorough and more creative than I had anticipated. The thoroughness may have been at the heart of my biggest struggle with the book; for the first two-thirds, it was a real slog for me. Although I'm science-friendly, and often enjoy science written for non-scientists, with this book I had difficulty retaining some of ...more

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Jan 15, 2017 Peter Tillman rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommended to Peter by: WSJ review

Shelves: not-for-me, stalled, did-not-finish, lost-interest, sci-tech

Pretentious twaddle, as far as I got. Best to look at the better one-star reviews here and at Amazon, before starting this book -- which I was looking forward to reading. Looks hopeless; abandoned. Life is too short....

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Jul 18, 2018 Stephen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: civic-awareness, energy, infrastructure

The Grid is a brief history of how our present electrical network evolved in the United States, an layman's analysis of its weaknesses -- some inherent, some developed over time as demand soared and different areas of the country made their own adaptations -- and a look at the future of the grid. Bakke imagines nano- and micro-grids will become much more common -- in part because it's increasingly affordable to generate one's own power through solar panels, and in part because as the system ...more

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Jan 28, 2018 AJ rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, non-fiction

2.5 stars
--
An important look into many nuances surrounding the electrical infrastructure in the US. This book covers topics as diverse as the history of our infrastructure, clean energy, what utility providers actually do, technologies that are helping to localize the grid, and more.

However, I can't take a book seriously when the author cannot present basic facts about electricity correctly. This book is in serious need of an electrical engineer to act as editor. The author states that electrons ...more

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Dec 31, 2016 Joe rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, politics

Entirely too wordy - where was the editor? On the other hand, I now know far more about our electric systems. One core idea is that creating a watt should be valued the same as a negative watt (a watt not consumed). Another is that we desperately need distributed energy storage - oil and gas are fantastic for moving energy around (they're energy dense) and they store energy. In contrast when your solar panels generate a watt that watt has to be consumed right then as there isn't s place to store ...more

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Feb 03, 2017 Wiktor Macura rated it really liked it

Actually an interesting subject but sorely in need of heavy editing. Towards the end there are obvious typographical errors in the text which make the last half a slog to get through.

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Jan 22, 2017 Gordon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Ended up skimming most of the second half of the book. Lots of interesting concepts but felt like the book could've very easily been 1/2 as long and gotten the same points across.

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Jan 28, 2017 Book rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: business, science, engineering

The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke

“The Grid” is an insightful yet verbose book on America’s grid technology; it’s history together with the laws, people and logic that brought it into existence. Author Gretchen Bakke holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and is currently a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada brings us this seldom told story of the evolution of an essential infrastructure. This interesting 364-page book ...more

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Oct 27, 2018 Niekdiehard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book being a 2016 Bill Gates pick set high expectations. The Wall Street Journal called it "a lucid and thought-provoking book". I disagree.

My first negative impression starts on the outside of the book. The PhD title of the author, Gretchen Bakke, is prominently featured on the cover. On closer inspection, this turns out to be in cultural anthropology. Featuring your PhD title in this way implies a certain understanding of the topic at hand. This turns out to be false. She keeps mixing up This book being a 2016 Bill Gates pick set high expectations. The Wall Street Journal called it "a lucid and thought-provoking book". I disagree.

My first negative impression starts on the outside of the book. The PhD title of the author, Gretchen Bakke, is prominently featured on the cover. On closer inspection, this turns out to be in cultural anthropology. Featuring your PhD title in this way implies a certain understanding of the topic at hand. This turns out to be false. She keeps mixing up simple physical concepts, such as energy and power, which is extremely irritating and completely unnecessary. More advanced concepts are not explained, they are named, and the reader is told that few people understand it and that it's complicated. This is a missed chance, since I would have loved to know how for example load balancing works, or how net operators predict the demand, or how different plants fit into the grid in terms of the speed at which they can adjust their power output, etc.

The book does an OK job explaining the history of the power grid, and the regulation surrounding the electricity market. All the stories are told anecdotally. The reader never gets the feeling of having an overview, but is simply presented with a number of stories which have the same subject: the grid. Everything is told in an extremely wordy way. Allow me to show how the following relatively trivial bit of information is told. First my summary: "After hurricane Sandy people thought about how to build a more resilient power grid". Ok, here goes Gretchens version: "... Sandy has had a more profound impact on our thinking about what infrastructures mean for living life in common. In that storm's wake we began asking in earnest how this infrastructure might be built to work in the aftermath of disaster. If it can't be made to bend in a high wind at least, the new thinking goes, perhaps we can avoid its being so inexorably broken; perhaps we can rebuild it in such a way to assure its ability to recover quickly." This makes for a very tiring read, since the same information could have been presented in a much smaller book. The book is pretty repetitive, often puts words in "quotes" which I find annoying, and generally seems to prefer form over function.

In the last chapter the book fully derails in my opinion. An outlook is presented. Although there are interesting insights, there are very confusing sections about how the grid needs to be inclusive. Allow me another quote: "But if the undeniable fact of gender has not percolated up into the consciousness of those who make, and remake, our grid, what else is being lost?". Sorry but I don't see how gender is relevant in this respect, electrons don't discriminate. Some big corporation bashing follows. Then there is a whole bit on energy saving, which sounds good, until you hear the contribution of the author. A corner of her house is not insulated, and since she lives in a cold region the bathtub drain freezes in winter. Her solution is to keep the water running all winter. Her defense: "We won't be taking a home loan in the near future to pay thousands of dollars to have our bathroom ripped up in order to install $150 worth of insulation into a single wall". Seriously? A loan just to insulate one wall? How big is her bathroom? Anyway, do as I say and not as I do, is the take away message there I guess. Afterward she continues about a "community-wide drop in power consumption", right.

At the end of the outlook she really goes of the trolley in my opinion. Her vision of a future grid: "... a beautiful one, minimally invasive, that shines rather than glowers and that is wrought into the leitmotif of the century we are only just now stepping into in earnest". I'm happy that many decisions regarding the grid are made by real scientists, who at least occasionally have to deal with this thing called "reality". ...more

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May 11, 2019 Mike Yarger rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A good book about America's electrical infrastructure. It talks about all aspects of America's electrical grid including its history, power companies, the laws that shaped it and the economics that drive it. The books anecdotes are its best parts. There are detailed timelines of blackouts, histories of interesting energy projects, and interviews with people who have left the grid. There is also a good chapter on the search for better storage technology.

For me, the most interesting point that the ...more

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Jun 10, 2018 Lena rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I generally found this book easy to read and a good introduction to the grid for someone who has never bothered to really learn about it (like me). There were parts of it I found fascinating: the early history of electricity, the descriptions of what went wrong in some outages, and some of the ways that electricity can be stored -- like pumped reservoirs and salt caverns of compressed air.

I wouldn't have minded a more technical depth. There were points where I think a little more detail for ...more

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Feb 20, 2018 Ushan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: energy

As a child I read a picture book Current Runs Over the Wires by Pyotr Neporozhny, Minister of Energy of the Soviet Union between 1962 and 1985: where electricity comes from and what it is good for. This is supposed to be an American book for adults on the same topic. However, it is far too long, repetitive, and has mistakes (nuclear fuel is based on uranium oxide, not uranium hexafluoride). We live in interesting times as far as the electric grid is concerned (would anyone have guessed 20 years ...more

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May 26, 2019 Nick Fuqua rated it liked it · review of another edition

A good book about the fraying grid and future-possible grid in America. It isn’t necessarily earth shattering, but is eye opening. 3 stars because I think it is in need of an update or second edition now, is a bit repetitive, and I think the book is a little too harsh on nuclear. While I think a fully decentralized grid and virtual power plants would be great, I can’t help but feel it is unlikely to happen with current energy policy in America. However, it doesn’t hurt to dream!

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Oct 13, 2018 Mitchell rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library, nonfiction, liked-reviews, history

Interesting and informative. But I wanted to like it better than I did. It wasn't as detailed as I was looking for, especially about the future. And it could have been more detailed in the historical elements as well. It was strongest in the retelling of specific events such as the Blackouts. So more of a hint of the book that could have been - but don't think I've ever seen another book aimed quite at this topic.

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Sep 27, 2017 Sara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I thought this book was excellent, really insightful, well researched and somehow also funny. As someone who works in energy it has changed my perspective on why the grid is what it is and what needs to happen to help it help us get off fossil fuels in our increasingly electronically connected society. Recommended!

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Apr 30, 2018 Luke rated it liked it · review of another edition

While this was a great history lesson on how our grid evolved to where it is today, it only spends about three pages on any next steps to fix it or move electrical generation from fossil fuels to renewables.

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Jun 11, 2019 Hilton rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book sparked many ideas for me and also gets into some of the non-eco-friendly motivations for moving to a new grid (resiliency and stability) and introduced a few new concepts (e.g., “hardening”). The writing was not great. It was very wonky and not really written for the layperson, and her choice of phrasing and wording felt very casual but quirky.
Wish it talked more about the ways we can implement new solutions.

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Feb 20, 2017 Peter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A fascinating and well-written account of the history, challenges, and possible futures of the electrical grid in the United States. The grid is an increasingly outdated monument to centralized production (big hydro, coal plants, etc.) with dispersed consumption, but that's changing as production gets dispersed and variable (wind farms, rooftop solar, etc.). I learned a lot about how electricity works, where innovation is happening (the U.S. military, for example) and why an economic storage ...more

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Jun 22, 2017 Wes rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: engineering-industry, history-politics-philosophy

What an atrocity to the subject matter.

"What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I've ever heard. At no point in your rambling incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul."

Granted most books I read are written by physicists and engineers, but this was painful. No writing skill, self-absorbed, and What an atrocity to the subject matter.

"What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I've ever heard. At no point in your rambling incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul."

Granted most books I read are written by physicists and engineers, but this was painful. No writing skill, self-absorbed, and ridiculously melodramatic. Admittedly, there are a few nice educational anecdotes on the history of electricity and the grid development, but this entire book was written in the preface (I was impressively duped by reading that part hungover on my cousin's couch and unfortunately very excited about this book, well-played ma'am).

This book is an adventure of neverending spelling typos, bad grammar (there was even a sentence that abruptly ended midway through) and generally speaking narcissistic, non-technical opinions.

I can look past the left-winged philosophy (there are even gender assaults) and the lack of expertise on the subject matter, but the rambling pointless pronouns, constantly contradicting statements, repetitive conclusions, and condescending comments towards electrical engineers, early off-grid adopters, and the general audience's average intelligence as it is (she uses an entire chapter to define 'the internet of things' as if it were her own idea and no one understands it) leave me dumbfounded on this books overall reviews. Not to mention there are all of 2 references throughout the entire book to the chunk of notes at the end which is basically a massive collection of web links. I have a hard time believing anyone but her own vain mind had anything to do with this book and most of her information is based on rumors, third-party work, and links to online articles.

Maybe this book deserves 2 stars, possibly even 3 with the attention it's given the grid infrastructure issue (thanks to Bill Gates putting it on his suggestions list). Perhaps that's why, in the acknowledgments section, she literally acknowledges no one other than her agent by name!?!? No editors, interviewees, or support other than her husband (says too many to list). There's no way this went past 2 drafts before publication.

This book is a joke, I've only tried to parallel the pompous melodramatic approach to this issue with an in-kind review. This is a scam and further proof that even an undeserved asshole can accidentally get rich with a little bit of luck. Save yourself the coin, read the preface at the library, then forget this book ever existed. ...more

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Jan 19, 2017 Pete Welter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"The Grid" unpacks the story of the US electrical grid, those wires that we see all the time but that we take for granted when we plug things in...until there's an outage at least. And like many other invisible technologies, the grid may seem simple in our usage, but behind the scenes, there are a myriad tradeoffs and limitations that effect the functioning and the economics of power generation and delivery. In short, it's complicated. Readers of this well-researched book will come away with a "The Grid" unpacks the story of the US electrical grid, those wires that we see all the time but that we take for granted when we plug things in...until there's an outage at least. And like many other invisible technologies, the grid may seem simple in our usage, but behind the scenes, there are a myriad tradeoffs and limitations that effect the functioning and the economics of power generation and delivery. In short, it's complicated. Readers of this well-researched book will come away with a more nuanced understanding of issues involved with electrical power in this country. If you someone who's curious about both the current and future state of our power grid, I can highly recommend this book. The caveat is that I'm a fan of books that geek out on (seemingly) mundane topics, and take my opinions in that light.

What distinguishes electrical distribution from many other kinds of products is that the overwhelming majority of electricity needs to be instantly consumed as it is generated - there are no buffers in the system. That is coupled with a demand that varies and a requirement that there be generation capacity to meet the peak demand (even that only happens a few times a year). Now throw in power sources that are highly variable themselves like wind and solar, and it becomes clear that keeping the lights on is not a trivial task.

Many people wonder why we can't just switch our generation to renewables from fossil fuels, and the discussion about the times we are in now gives a much deeper insight into the tradeoffs involved. Our electrical system has entered a period of drastic change, with technology, business, regulation, legislation, and customer expectations all influencing the evolution of the grid, and there isn't an option just to build a new one. We need the grid running, all the time.

The origins of the electrical grid were much more dynamic that I expected, and Bakke covers that era, especially the major players. Although tales from a hundred twenty years ago might seem like just interesting trivia, in the case of the grid it turns out that history does indeed repeat itself to a degree.

A book that I'd compare "The Grid" to would be "The Box" which does for shipping and shipping containers what this book does for electricity (although the latter is a bit drier read). Two critical components of modern life that everybody uses but very few think about. ...more

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Oct 30, 2017 Ricky rated it did not like it · review of another edition

A rambling and repetitive look at the power grid written by an unqualified author. Painful to read at times. Do not let the "PhD" on the cover fool you, the Gretchen Bakke does not understand basic electrical theory, technology, nor economics for that matter (I looked it up, her proudly displayed PhD is in anthropology). The publisher could have at least found an editor with a technical background to correct some the mistakes.

Honestly, The Grid reads like a Trump speech: "Our power grid is bad. ...more

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“America does not run on gas, oil, or coal any more than we may one day run on wind, solar, or tidal power. America runs on electricity.” — 1 likes

“As we know from chapter 2, electricity does not move by human logic—it does not, for example, take the shortest path between two points. Nor does it move by water’s logic, though there are certain similarities—it does not, for example, “flow downhill” or “puddle” on even terrain. Nicely, too, it won’t drip out of an “open” outlet.” — 0 likes

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