Thread by @maggiekb1

This is a super interesting thread about experiences with the Texas electrical grid. I will say one thing here: VERY old and shoddily maintained infrastructure is not just a feature of Texas' deregulated system. Updating aging infrastructure is an issue all over.

https://twitter.com/historianess/status/1361661596498558977

You all might remember the infamous 100-year-old transmission line from the California Camp fire wildfiretoday.com/2018/12/10/why…

Generally, I am not sure exactly how common REALLY old electric infrastructure is ... but I am certain it is more common that you probably think. Why? Same reason there's a lot of old houses still running on their original wiring.

Infrastructure is both expensive af and you don't get a lot of benefit/incentive to put it in. So most people, most of the time, are gonna leave what works in place even if that means an increasing risk of catastrophic failure.

Infrastructure has ALWAYS been expensive. When I was researching the history of the electric grid for my book, I kept finding all these records of early electric companies just going bankrupt over and over and over.

Generally speaking, the people who had to build the initial grid weren't the people who ended up making lots of money off owning electric companies. It was the people who bought existing infrastructure as demand was skyrocketing.

Now, you've got aging infrastructure that needs major upgrades/replacement. AND you have electricity demand generally on a flatlining trend in the US. iea.org/commentaries/t…

So you end up with a game of chicken, basically. We are going to have to replace a lot of this very old infrastructure. But nobody wants to do it unless they absolutely have to. And that's why, when a disaster happens, you'll find things like failing parts your grandparents' age.

Also: This is why big chunks of rural America didn't get properly electrified until the Great Depression and the federal government stepping in. There wasn't enough concentrated demand to make the money work to build infrastructure on a business case.

Infrastructure costs $$$$$$$$$$.
No matter what kind. No matter when or where. It's expensive. Everybody wants to profit off running the crucial infrastructure. Nobody wants to have to be the one to build it.

We've all had fun joking about when it was gonna be Infrastructure Week for the last four years, but, uh, those jokes have always been tinged with a note of desperation from those of us who know it really does need to be Infrastructure Week at some point.