Reddit reviews On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems That Make Our World Work
We found 2 Reddit comments about On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems That Make Our World Work. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I'm sure you know by now that there isn't one "grid" rather it's a patchwork of regional systems strung together and it crosses a multitude of state, local, and federal boundaries. Having an entity be able to cut through all that to update and manage that system would be a gargantuan task and ludicrously expensive.
If you had something created at the federal level, something like a national monopoly, you'd first have to wrest control away from regional private and public entities that own parts of the grid. Eminent domain might be able to get you that but you're not just stepping on some toes you're wailing on them with a hammer.
Also every mayor, state legislator, and governor is going to go into a feeding frenzy when you get to their town/county/state/district because they can throw a temper tantrum and maybe stop you from working until they get some type of consideration. Legally you could battle it out but how much time and money do you want to spend fighting every branch of everywhere you try to go?
Assuming you can get through all that you have to consider that the idea of a smart grid, at least in the incarnations I've read about, is more than a bit unsettling.
Wifi/cellular enabled meters sound great but they aren't exactly lockboxes and there have been a ton of examples of people breaking the encryption and messing with them, even bumping whole neighborhoods off the grid.
Another part of it that I've read about is your utility company being able to adjust how much power they send you or how they bill you based on specific appliance usage in your home correlated with time of day and other related aspects. A lot of people aren't going to want that kind of granular access by the power company to their daily lives.
There's a book that goes into detail about parts of this, while some of it will probably be review for you the smart grid aspects are probably of interest, "On The Grid" by Scott Huler.
Urban planning, especially roads, is one of my weird obsessions. It's one of the most fascinating things I've ever encountered.
I'm currently reading The Big Roads, a book about the history of the road system in the country. https://www.amazon.com/Big-Roads-Visionaries-Trailblazers-Superhighways/dp/0547907249
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And after that, I move onto this: https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Average-Neighborhood-Systems-World/dp/1609611381
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On The Grid actually uses Raleigh as the subject matter. I'm excited for it.