I am a member of one of those California Sierra Club chapters that Jonathan Thompson mentions in his excellent feature, “The Bid for a Big Grid” (HCN, 8/21/17). Our concern has been more about the fact that up to 25 percent of the power transmitted long distances via high-voltage power lines is lost during transmission. Several California chapters have long argued for a Sierra Club policy that promotes distributed generation — local power generation for local needs.
Distributed generation has the advantage not only of cutting transmission losses; smaller targets are less appealing to terrorists, and the consequences of terrorist attacks on energy infrastructure would be much more limited.
Distributed generation has a long history and has been well studied. In fact, even the U.S. Department of Energy has a report on the subject, published in 2007: The Potential Benefits of Distributed Generation and Rate-Related Issues That May Impede Their Expansion.
I would have liked to see the distributed generation option discussed in Jonathan’s article; it is compatible with a more integrated grid. Even better would be a follow-up feature that explores the advantages and disadvantages of big, centralized power generation as compared to decentralized generation.
Felice Pace
Klamath, California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline More on distributed generation.
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