The Power Grid/Greed

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news: I read nerdy reports out of pure enjoyment so you don't have to. The bad news: when it comes to making the power grid more resilient, we're screwed.

I often hear that the power grid is the biggest concern for potential clients. The key thing about critical infrastructure -- you know, one of the 16 sectors that the nation relies on for us to run as a country -- is you as a single business owner can't do anything about the power grid; it's out of your span of control. What I found out in this article is what exactly is anyone who does have the power doing about it. The answer is daunting to say the least.

The most logical source of making the power grid more resilient is either the government or the utility companies who deliver the power from the power grid. That's already a double whammy of bad. The report published by The National Academies, is called Effective, Efficient, and Informed Research, Development, and Demonstration for the Electricity

System: Issue Paper (2026). All it did was inform me about how little the utilities are doing...and why.

One section focuses on research and development (R&D). It makes sense for companies to invest in R&D so they can produce better products and services as part of staying ahead of competition. But when it comes to critical infrastructure (CI), there aren't many competitors. You get power from them or you go off-grid (literally) or supplement with solar or wind power. That's not true competition since there is so little of that in the United States. Also, whatever is available from alternative sources is limited in its ability to connect because...wait for it...the infrastructure to connect to homes and share with utilities hasn't been invested in much at all. But back to this R&D, there was a chart from 2023 on the R&D spend from various industries. Of note were pharma (17.8%), computers/electronics (16%), and utilities (0.1%). Yes, 0.1%. Is there another motivating factor aside from they don't have to?

Of course! Money!!!

Utilities do not have an interest in doing R&D because making the delivery of power more efficient or just more efficient power results in lower rates for them. So they don't. They want to keep making money.

Let that sink in. Makes that 0.1% make sense, doesn't it?

Then who else would have a vested interest in seeing CI succeed? The actual federal government. The CI infrastructure investment is basically non-existent - not that it doesn't exist but so much red tape exists to get the funds, nothing gets approved. Also, as far as R&D goes, the utilities would rather the Department of Energy and universities do the R&D for them. What happens when we rely on the fed for funding things like this? Shall I bring up FEMA and what's been going on there and how all their money to help state and local governments all but disappeared? It's not reliable.

What are you to do? I said as a business owner the power grid is out of your control. BUT there are things that you CAN do that are within your control, like being prepared! What's there to do? Talk to someone like me. Because now you know this isn't getting fixed anytime soon and with AI data centers creating a massive draw on an already weak system, a critical failure point isn't that far off. Profits over power...