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Electricity powers almost every part of our lives. Yet many of us pay little attention to our electricity service. It’s something that’s noticed only by its absence – such as when service is disrupted, and our water, telecommunications, transportation, and banking systems grind to a halt, and our homes, our businesses, indeed, our daily lives, shut down. Curiously, electricity doesn’t hold the headlines or dramatic power of oil, even though the ability to ensure its uninterrupted supply at a reasonable price is even more essential to global survival and prosperity. That’s because it is still treated and viewed as a parochial industry, the “local utility,” despite the fact that it is being moved and shaken by a sophisticated global energy business, and deeply implicated in global environmental issues.
Written by Jason Makansi, one of the world’s most seasoned electricity industry experts, Lights Out calls attention to this dangerous paradox – one that is quietly immobilizing progress – and proposes a comprehensive road map that will put us on a more rational path and help us avoid the serious consequences of an unhealthy electricity infrastructure.
Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, Lights Out examines our “third-world” transmission grid, one that is in desperate need of upgrading; offers an honest assessment of how to deal with electricity’s contribution to global warming; and addresses numerous hot-button economic, environmental, and political issues related to the current debate – from free markets versus regulation to energy independence versus foreign imports. Beyond just uncovering and illuminating the problems, however, Lights Out also presents a comprehensive collection of technical solutions and regulatory reforms from both the production and demand side of the equation – a framework for rethinking, rebuilding, and enhancing our entire electricity production and delivery infrastructure.
Divided into three engaging parts, this essential book offers a detailed look at:
- How today’s electricity system works – from the extraction of the raw energy source to the electricity-consuming appliances in your home – and what happens if these “supply lines” begin to break down
- Why the strongest, most vibrant economy in the world is increasingly dependent upon a production, transmission, and distribution system that continues to be built for the last fifty years, not the next half century
- What can be done to rescue us from the current path we’re on – from embracing new technologies ready for deployment to reformulating business models based on common sense, not market or political ideologies
- And much more
Prescriptive and provocative, Lights Out will redefine the simmering debate on how the world can – and must – act now to head off the global consequences of inadequate electricity service, consequences that could eventually, and more insidiously, wreak greater havoc than the ongoing tensions in world oil markets.
Jason Makansi is the President of Pearl Street, Inc., a consulting firm he founded in 2000 focused on all aspects of electricity production and delivery. He has launched multiple businesses serving the electricity industry, including an investment fund, an advisory service for companies raising capital, and a public-policy advocacy organization. A prolific author and respected industry thought leader, Makansi has been researching and 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. Makansi is the author of An Investor’s Guide to the Electricity Economy, also published by Wiley, and Managing Steam: An Engineering Guide to Commercial, Industrial, and Utility Systems.
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