Electric service must be better protected

There must be a better way, and it must be a way that the public can afford, because otherwise society is completely helpless without it. That would be how to deliver electric service, without which our world ceases to function.

And yet, the distribution of power to consumers is not that much different on a fundamental level from what it was 70 years ago. For the most part, power delivery to our homes, businesses and vital institutions continues to depend on wires overhead and poles in the ground that stretch out from unprotected hubs and substations.

Although the generation and storage of electricity, along with the management of its delivery to society, have seen great advances over the past hundred years, it remains that most homes are connected to these vast grids by overhead wires that are at the mercy of the elements.

These lines break, they fall, they are damaged by high winds, heavy snow, and wildlife. The transformers connected to them blow up after overheating because of surges, overloading and the weather. Poles comes down or are mowed down by errant vehicles.

All our technology, banking, health care, government services and entertainment, lighting, heating, cooling, cooking and appliances can be rendered useless just like that because of the weather and no one — no one — has come up with a way to prevent this potentially disastrous interruption of service  from occurring when the weather gets rough … at least not in a way we can afford.

No one at the moment knows this better than Berlin residents, who were reminded of our vulnerability when they lost their electrical power Sunday night during the early stages of the nor’easter that spent 24 hours or so pounding the coast.

As they can tell you, there’s nothing quite like sitting at home helplessly in the candlelight for an extended period to remind us that we need to do more to protect this one thing that makes us who we are today, and prevents us from slipping back to who we were a century ago.