Puerto Rico Needs 50,000 Utility Poles ...Perhaps a Few SMRs as Well?

Nuclear Power Industry

Dr. Conca reports that Rebuilding the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s electric grid will require over 50,000 utility poles. With enough cable to stretch from San Diego to Boston and back. And then some. Hurricane Maria made a direct hit on the island as a Category 4 hurricane on September 20th with winds up to 155 mph. The 3.4 million United States citizens that live on Puerto Rico have had little or no power since then. Along with almost no drinking water and food, the situation is dire. Work crews from the public power utility in Jacksonville, Florida, and the New York Power Authority, are now in Puerto Rico working with PREPA to assess the damage and determine the repairs needed to restore the grid. That includes electricity generating facilities, transmission lines and substations.

The New York crews have completed assessment work on approximately 120 substations on the island. The power in Puerto Rico is the most expensive electricity next to Hawaii, and one of the most carbon-intensive in America. Puerto Rico has been replacing coal and oil with natural gas, and has set a goal to be 20% renewable by 2035. But that will take a lot of investment. But renewable systems are susceptible to extreme weather, especially on an island that cannot take advantage of surrounding grids like we can on the mainland. Many solar arrays on Puerto Rico made it through the storm fine, but many didn’t. This is one reason why Director of Emergency Response and Recovery at DOE, Ken Buell, thinks it’s time to think about a total rebuild of the power system, not just a repair. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello, agrees, saying there is no way to fix the grid, it’s too dilapidated, adding that the grid was so feeble it would have collapsed even in a much weaker storm. The power system needs to be redesigned and built to withstand future Category 5 storms. That means things like putting the power lines underground - the few underground lines weathered Maria quite well – and making poles that can’t be subsurface out of high-strength concrete. It also means installing power systems that are resistant to extreme weather events, like nuclear, especially small modular reactors. A set of SMRs, with distributed solar, could power the entire island cheaply and reliably, even with hurricanes.

A new report this week from the Nuclear Innovation Alliance outlines ways to accelerate this process....in order to speed up the development of SMRs, perhaps to begin tests in Puerto Rico?

Working URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2017/10/13/puerto-rico-needs-50000-utility-poles/#810efdc3d848