Hard (to be) Wired in a Wireless World

Internet connections, cell phones, iPods, iPads all necessary tools we have come to rely upon in our everyday world. However, if you ask people who lost power in the Oct. 29 snowstorm, there are no more necessary tools than light, heat, and electricity.

So how is it that with so much of our world wireless, we are still tethered to wires in the sky, and a PSE&G substation placed in a low-lying flood zone?

The day following the storm, Patch met with many residents who asked that very question. Part of the problem may be that we don't think much about our wired world until a storm hits and the lights go out. As one resident said, "When we're plugged in, we tune out."

The snowstorm that blew through on Oct. 29 extinguished the power to over 3000 residents and businesses. In many cases, the weight of the snow on tree limbs caused them to snap and fall onto power lines resulting in many downed wires. PSE&G trucks could be spotted all around town trying to repair these lines, but as one PSE&G supervisor speaking on the condition of anonymity said, "I've never seen anything like this. So many towns got hit hard. We're calling in crews from down south because there's no way we can do all these repairs by ourselves." For some residents, power did not return to their homes until Saturday evening, a full week after the storm. 

In the last 20 years technological visionaries such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg have completely changed the face of communication; why, then, has the way that power is delivered to our homes and business remained virtually unchanged? 

Bill Zarakas, of The Brattle Group, a Cambridge, a Massachussettes based economic consulting firm specializing in the electric power and utility industries, told the Associated Press that if Alexander Graham Bell came back today he would not necessarily recognize our telecommunications system. However, he went on to say, if Thomas Edison returned, "he would understand our entire grid." 

Is the fact that we still have power lines attached to poles solely a matter of economics, as many readers have commented on Patch, or is it because we lack the technology to revolutionize the way that power is delivered?

Ralph LaRossa, president and chief operating officer of Public Service Electric & Gas Co. told the Associated Press, "I don't really think the capital is the constraint. I really think it is, to a great degree, the technology and what makes sense from a price point to consumers." He added, "There is some kid in a garage who's going to come up with something great. It just hasn't come out yet."

LaRossa added that the cost to move the wires underground would be astronomical. "We don't believe that it will ever come close to being an economic advantage for folks to go ahead and underground all the facilities," he said.

So, until that "kid in the garage" can come up with the technology that will revolutionize our aging utilities system, PSE&G will continue to allocate half of its maintenance budget to trimming trees and keeping branches from getting tangled in the wires.