Episode 4.6: Brian Johnson — Power Grids

“Texas has gone further than a lot of other states in deregulating their power system. So, if you look at Idaho Power or Avista, or a lot of the utilities in the Northwest, they own the generation, the transmission and the distribution lines that do the last little way to get to the customers. In Texas, the generators are mostly owned by third parties. Basically, they don’t have this obligation to make sure that power gets to the customers. So, the people who actually own the distribution lines and do the last part of getting the power to the end users, they have that obligation to serve, but because they don’t own the generation, they can’t guarantee that the supply is going to be available.” Meet Brian Johnson (bit.ly/3mdY1aV), a university distinguished professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (bit.ly/3cHgPML) at the University of Idaho. In February, a snowstorm hit Texas, and its power grid failed, leaving people without heat and electricity. Brian has worked with the energy sector for his whole career and understands the ins-and-outs of the issues that took down the Texas power grid. Visit our website go.uidaho.edu/thevandaltheory​. Email us at [email protected]. Learn about Idaho’s premier research university, University of Idaho, at uidaho.edu. More U of I Research: Ashly Anderson, an animal science graduate student, is working with U of I faculty to look at how poor air quality due to wildfires impacts the health of dairy cattle and their milk production. It is the first step in providing livestock producers with recommendations and advice to keep their cattle healthy during wildfire season. Read more (bit.ly/3sJ9F06). Junior Mandy Scheffler and her classmates partnered with a Washington, D.C.-based dance organization called Dance Exchange. The team highlighted the ways food sources are taken for granted by connecting dance movements to the beauty of the local fields where the food is grown. Read more (bit.ly/2OhLaIu). A U of I-led study found that breastfeeding women with COVID-19 do not pass along the SARS-CoV-2 virus in their milk but do transfer milk-borne antibodies that are able to neutralize the virus. Read more (bit.ly/3wsaUTR). Music: “Young Republicans” by Steve Combs (bit.ly/2PsMCpw) via freemusicarchive.org, not modified (bit.ly/2Ju7MQb). “B-3” by BoxCat Games (bit.ly/31OQIxj) via freemusicarchive.org, not modified (bit.ly/3msO0Hk).