What is the future of energy distribution?

Back in June, a storm swept through Dallas, and we lost power. We weren’t the only ones; there were over 300,000 homes across the city without power. And yet, when I looked outside that evening, my neighbor had their lights on.

They have solar power. In fact, they had solar panels installed on their roof just a month before the outage. Talk about timing. While much of Dallas sweltered through it - which for me lasted 28 hours, for others several days - they enjoyed cool temperatures with their air conditioner running.

Now, it wasn’t all bread and roses for them. As the outage went on, they ended up switching off as much as they could. The lights went out, computers shut down, and so on, all so they could save power for the A/C and refrigerator.

This was all very dramatic, but what does it have to do with power generation? This was the longest outage I’ve experienced in the decade I’ve lived in this house. Why should I worry, and why should my wife already be browsing for solar panels for our house?

It’s because we panic. We are used to certain things, and we want them to remain the same. My wife was miserable that night, as the temperature inside the house rose into the mid 80s. Even though it was a rare event, she was looking for some way to mitigate it.

The big question is this: How many people across Dallas did the same thing? How many of the solar companies in Dallas got calls, as people think about how to prevent this from happening again? I’d bet that most will see increased business through the end of the year.

What does this mean for the future of electric power distribution? As more and more people go solar, systems will change. There will be a lower demand in the middle of the day for power, because it will come off the solar panels instead of the grid. I also believe people will shift their usage of power when they have solar panels. They will see where the big draws are coming from and adjust where possible.

But the interesting thing that continues down this thought experiment: the grid may disappear. Not entirely, but it is an antiquated system, leading back to the origins of electric power. Why do we still generate power tens or hundreds of miles from where it is consumed? Because that’s what we’ve always done.

Local generation of power, whether from solar or wind, will continue to grow. There may always be a need for the grid. Many facilities may not be able to generate enough power to run themselves. Solar panels will become more efficient, and cheaper, and batteries will too. Between those two things, the grid of the future will be less significant.

This article was written by Steve West, the Power Copywriter. Steve works with marketing managers in the electric power generation industry. He helps create long-form content to establish thought leadership, generate leads, and accelerate the sales cycle. You can find Steve online at powercopywriter.com, or call him at 972-521-7456 to discuss your marketing needs.