NEW YORK, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The dog days of summer are here! With them comes an increased use of air conditioners, and an increased strain on our already-aging power grid. The U.S. has nearly 500,000 miles of transmission lines carrying electricity to consumers. Many of them are more than 50 years old, a concern, as the "design-life" for many of the components -- power transformers, circuit breakers, etc. -- is only 30 to 35 years on average.
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So what's being done to make sure the lights stay on? Experts say it's a combination of building new power plants, improving older ones and using advanced transmission technologies. High voltage direct current (HVDC) technology, for example, allows communities to tap into electricity generated miles and miles away. Case in point -- the new Neptune Regional Transmission System takes power generated in Sayreville, New Jersey, transports it underneath the Atlantic Ocean, and ultimately delvers it to a substation 65 miles away on Long Island, so it can be used by residents in more than half a million homes.
By taking electricity from sites with a large supply and delivering it efficiently and cheaply to areas with a large demand, experts say we can reduce the likelihood of blackouts. This is especially helpful, they say, in urban areas, which have growing populations and growing power use, but often lack the space needed to build new power plants.
Currently, more than a dozen HVDC projects exist in the U.S.
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