
Shorting the Grid
The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid
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Narrated by:
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Eric G. Meyer
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By:
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Meredith Angwin
About this listen
Grid insiders know how fragile the grid is becoming. Unfortunately, they have no incentive to solve the problem because near-misses increase their profits. Meredith Angwin describes how closed meetings, arcane auction rules, and five-minute planning horizons will topple the reliability of our electric grid. Shorting the Grid shines light on the vulnerabilities of our grid, and includes suggestions for making the grid more dependable.
©2020 Meredith Angwin (P)2022 Meredith AngwinListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story
In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel-driven civilization and offers listeners a magisterial overview of humanity's energy eras.
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Not a good format for this book
- By C. Hoogeboom on 05-19-18
By: Vaclav Smil
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Material World
- The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
- By: Ed Conway
- Narrated by: Ed Conway
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future. In Material World, Ed Conway embarks on an epic journey across continents, cultures, and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth—traveling from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates.
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Insightful
- By Sam on 01-17-24
By: Ed Conway
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Chip War
- The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing.
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Great history, but could poor narration
- By Lily Wong on 10-26-22
By: Chris Miller
A must read!
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Down the Grid Rabbit Hole
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A Call to Action
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The story is good / recording is not
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A Must listen for all who care about climate, energy security, and prosperity
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Very Informative, But Desperately Needs A pdf
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An important book for every energy professional
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Great education on the electric grid
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(my background is from the power/energy sector, but on the services side so I have no stake in the personal opinions of the author, but do have some background knowledge of the system).
if you buy this book, I suggest watching an hour or so of YouTube videos about the grid and some power basics just so you're not starting cold - that'll help you take in a lot more from this book.
Decent intro to the grid, but disorganized
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I want to like this book, it's just very hard to stay actively listening to. I can't tell of it's the story or the narration though. I shifted from my normal 1.2x to 1.1x to 0.95x.
The narrator unexpectedly and suddenly shifts tones or pitches, as if many multiple seperate conversations were spliced together. Maybe there are cut-out blurbs in the actual book? If so, some notification would be helpful. I also think the narrator didn't understand what they were saying, as if reading a book aloud in class. Makes an already acronym dense book harder to follow because, I think, the emphasis(es?) are in odd spots.
I wish the story itself wasn't predominantly about the Northeast's power grid and had a more country wide perspective, even if the view had to shift from 5,000 feet to 30,000 feet. I realize it's the author's experience and "the grid" is a collection of regional areas, but there's a lot of details about specifically the politics of the Northeast's grid that could be cut to someone not from there.
Feels Fragmented and Regional
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