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    Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy, and What It Means To You
    Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy, and What It Means To You
    Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy, and What It Means To You
    Ebook241 pages5 hours

    Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy, and What It Means To You

    By Jason Makansi

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A behind-the-scenes exposure why our electricity system is headed for a state of emergency-and what can be done to head it off

    Most people don't realize that skyrocketing global energy demand and economic growth severely affect the supply of electricity. Between production (power plants) and delivery is an antiquated, "third-world" transmission grid that is in desperate need of hardening against breakdowns, terrorist attacks, inadequate carrying capacity, and operational obsolescence. And while electricity doesn't hold the headlines or dramatic power of oil, the ability to ensure its uninterrupted supply at a reasonable price is even more essential to global survival and prosperity. Lights Out is today's most detailed, in-depth examination of this largely unreported looming energy crisis. Written by one of the world's top electricity industry experts, this powerful book covers numerous hot button economic and political issues-free markets versus regulation; energy independence versus foreign imports; nuclear power, global warming, and other environmental issues; and much more. Beyond just uncovering and illuminating the problems, however, it proposes a comprehensive road map of technical solutions and regulatory reform from both the production and demand sides of the equation-a framework for rethinking, rebuilding, and enhancing the entire electricity production and delivery infrastructure. Prescriptive and provocative, Lights Out will redefine the simmering debate on how the world can-and must-act now to head off a global catastrophe, one that could eventually wreak even more havoc than the ongoing oil crisis.

    Jason Makansi is the President of Pearl Street, Inc., a consulting firm; Principal of PS Liquidity Advisors, an advisory service for energy technology companies raising capital; and Executive Director of the Energy Storage Council, a public-policy advocacy organization. A prolific author, respected industry thought leader, and seasoned communicator, Mr. Makansi has been analyzing the technological, business, and regulatory issues in electricity production and delivery for over twenty-five years. He earned a BS in chemical engineering from Columbia University. His earlier books include An Investor’s Guide to the Electricity Economy, also published by John Wiley & Sons, and Managing Steam: An Engineering Guide to Commercial, Industrial, and Utility Systems.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWiley
    Release dateAug 24, 2007
    ISBN9780470174302
    Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy, and What It Means To You

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    • 4/5
      This is a funny book. It is quite chatty and in many ways shallow and short-sighted. But then in other ways the author keeps his eye on some fundamentally important points. He also has a broad familiarity with the electric power utility business. So his points are worth studying, even if they are really just raw starting points for study rather than refined nuggets of wisdom. Probably the core puzzle that Makansi confronts is the way consumers take for granted that reliable electric power just flows out of the plug in the wall, at a stable price. Despite the fact that this assumption has held up for something like a century, it is not sustainable. It represents an ignorance which masks an irresponsibility, which Makansi makes clear. There are environmental, political, and military costs to making electricity flow so freely and reliably. Makansi does dance around most of the core pieces of the puzzle, but hardly manages any kind of coherent solution. Which is not so unreasonable, after all. As far as I can tell, the only realistic solutions are totally unacceptable. Which is to say, we have some hard lessons in front of us! Really, though, it is a lot more fun to read about a return to paleolithic living than actually to confront any real live movement in that direction. We are all dancing the musical chairs to avoid confronting those hard lessons. Makansi is in company with the very great majority of us in his dancing, and at least he is bringing up the issues which is a lot more than most folks do.It is easy to dismiss a lot of his writing because it is very dated. This book was written before the Fukushima disaster and before the Lehman Brothers disaster. Maybe nuclear power is still the right direction, who am I to say, but the case for it sure got a lot harder after Fukushima. And the world of finance shifted hugely. This book also came before the big expansion of hydro-fracking for natural gas. Anybody's guess really but it sure looks like fracking will fade as quickly as it sprouted, if the depletion rates stay as brutal as some report. Makansi tries to strike a balance between salvation by technology and salvation by personal responsibility. Salvation by automation and salvation by awareness... it is really a very awkward balance! Really he has all the ingredients in the pot but he has barely started to cook the stew. This book is a good introduction to many of the issues facing the supply of electric power. It's a bit like a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Maybe all the pieces aren't here, but certainly enough of them to enable a person to get a good picture of the problem. The difficulty with the book is that the pieces aren't really fit together. The deeper difficulty is that nobody really knows how to put the pieces together. Don't get distracted by how dated the book is. Any book or viewpoint will be just as dated, at least if it stays at this superficial level. The way to move closer to the truth is not to update the book, though that might be useful, but to dig deeper into the underlying dynamics. A worthy project, for sure!

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