The Security-Industrial Complex
We have scarcely begun to tap technology's potential to make our homeland more secure against terror.
Can the Terrorists Turn Out Gotham’s Lights?
Who stayed lit after Gotham's lights went out during the blackout of August 2003? Batteries and standby generators kicked in to keep trading alive on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. But the AmEx failed to open; true, it had backup generators for the trading-floor computers, but it depended on Consolidated Edison to…
Dig More Coal, the Hybrids are Coming
The all-electric car doesn't have much of a range. Hybrids don't save much gas. But just plug in the hybrid, and you have a winner.
Brawn & Brains
How to avoid the next blackout: Make the grid smarter. As instant pundits were too quick to point out last week, investment in grid assets has declined steadily in recent decades, while electricity demand has risen. Tangled regulatory reasons are to blame, and new investment in grid hardware is now urgently needed. But the grid…
Critical Power
The New York Sun It will happen again. The mayor, the governor, and congressional committees will all hold hearings, and point fingers, while the engineers will, soon enough, find a technical explanation for what caused the massive August 14 black-out. There will be all sorts of sonorous pronouncements about how utilities ought to be regulated…
Critical Power White Paper
Electricity occupies a uniquely important role in the infrastructure of modern society. A complete loss of power shuts down telephone switches, wireless cell towers, bank computers, E911 operator centers, police communication networks, hospital emergency rooms, air traffic control, street lights, and the electrically actuated valves and pumps that move water, oil, and gas, along with…