L3_What have we Learned_Branddun Casara

One of the best policies the government could promote in order to increase efficiency would be to aim at reducing electrical loss and waste. The current electrical transmission systems use lines that have been in use for decades and are a very inefficient way to move electricity. Many of the current lines lose an average of about 7% of the transmitted kW in the form of heat and corona discharge. If the government were to subsidize the cost of a smart grid system especially in areas of higher electricity use the overall system would be immensely more efficient. Additionally for high usage areas subsidies could be promoted for local electricity generators which cuts loss down to negligible levels

Energy efficiency can be promoted by restricting heavy electrical usage to off peak hours. By using appliances like washing machine, dryers, charging of electric vehicles and other high energy use products between the hours of 8:00p.m. and 7:00a.m. it reduces the need of peak hour generators which tend to be coal or natural gas fired. During the peak hours of the day air conditioning and lighting keeps the mainline generators busy but at night many generators are offline. By creating a company that produces affordable timing devices so that a family can program their high electric appliances to start in the off peak hours this is especially true with the highest electrical need devices like electric vehicle charging. Widespread usage of timing devices in combination with smart grid technologies would drive efficiency towards realistically sustainable levels.

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