80 INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | SUMMER 2019
connected life
Building A Better Grid
New technologies may hold the key to helping communities bounce back from
natural disasters.By Patricia Miller
At 8:30 AM on a Friday, when many people
were starting their morning commute, the
ground in Anchorage, Alaska began to quake.
The single road leading into the state’s largest
city twisted and churned into crumpled piles of
asphalt.In all, eight major roadways in Anchorage were
damaged or destroyed. Five short days later, all
eight had reopened. How was one of the United
States’ most remote cities, deep in the throes of
winter, able to repair so much so quickly?Simply put, they were prepared.
Alaskan officials had a plan in place, they had
the proper equipment and machinery on hand,
and they had a specific set of operations to
follow in the event of an earthquake. Their
preparation made them resilient and able to
recover more quickly from the unpredictability
of nature’s wrath.Fostering Resilience
Resilience isn’t something that just happens,it’s a byproduct of planning and ensuring the
right technologies are in place before they are
needed. It’s also something the U.S. is largely
under-prioritizing. The chaos after Hurricane
Maria struck Puerto Rico is a stark reminder of
what a lack of resilience looks like.
Puerto Rico faced a complete loss of their
infrastructure, from power to communication. If
the island had reliable energy generation and
storage capabilities, perhaps some of the 2,795
people who perished would have survived.
The energy grid is one of the most vulnerable
components of American infrastructure. Often,
loss of power can easily equate to a loss of life.
Just ask Zaida Maldonado, whose son relies on a
ventilator to breathe.
In the days following Hurricane Maria,
Maldonado and her family scrambled from
hospital to hospital in search of reliable power.
According to an NPR report, one week after
Maria made landfall, only 11 out of 69 hospitals
had electricity or fuel for their generators.The Rise of Resilient Tech
Advancements in energy storage could change
the outlook for disaster recovery on a global
scale. Renewable energies are now cost-
competitive with traditional power generation
methods, but the challenge is how to store that
power effectively when the sun’s not shining or
the wind isn’t blowing, and how to make that
power accessible for the people who need it.
To mitigate the effects of natural disasters like
Hurricane Maria, the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL) is working to
develop new methods of power storage. These
technologies could help build a stronger, more
resilient energy grid and contribute to the
development of more microgrids.
Adam Duran, program manager at NREL,
explains: “Microgrids take a lot of different
forms and scales. They are often a localized
group of electric sources and loads. So on the
smallest scale, your house could be its own
microgrid. All of the appliances in your house(Left) A magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Alaska destroyed roads and infrastructure throughout the state. Shockingly, officials had major roadways repaired in less than
a week thanks to training and preparation. (Right) Adam Duran, program manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, works with Shell’s GameChanger
Accelerator program developing the next generation of power grid technology.