Wednesday, April 10, 2019

It Is Time to Consider Transitioning to Autonomous Distributed Energy

Storm leaves more than 275,000 people without power in Southern Quebec

Hundreds of thousands of people are still without power in southern Quebec after the region was hit freezing rain and strong winds.

Quebec-Hydro says the storm Monday caused branches and trees to come in contact with their network, leaving 275,000 people without power by early Tuesday morning.
The Crown corporation says the hardest hit areas were Laval, Lanaudiere and the Laurentians.
Meanwhile, the city of Laval opened two community centres for the night to help people without electricity.
By Tuesday morning, more than 80,000 people in the city were without power, while more than 90,000 were still left in the dark in Lanaudiere.
Hydro-Quebec spokesman Louis-Olivier Batty said Monday evening that teams from regions less affected by the power outages had been called in as reinforcements.
From The Canadian Press.

Few weeks ago it was a cyclone Idai which was of course much more catastrophic disaster in Africa. Now it is a storm, blackout, people without heat in Canada. Isn't it time to consider transitioning to distributed autonomous energy generation? Consider AMES module developed by Ascent Systems Technologies. Multiple modules can be deployed throughout the areas affected by the disaster. In the case of one or even several modules going out of service, it will not affect other modules, so the impact will be minimized and localized. Individual modules can be quickly brought back to service without disrupting large areas. Moreover, the modules can be deployed in the "at risk" areas in advance. They would "hibernate" in the transport configuration and can be automatically and remotely activated when needed. Imagine how many lives can be saved and large economic loss can be avoided?

Climate change, natural and other disasters are not going to go away - on the contrary they will become more frequent and more severe. We need strategic thinking.