Last week, the cities of Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto, experienced a horrific plane crash that took the lives of several executives from Tesla, caused damage to several houses in the area, and also was responsible for a power outage that lasted several hours in many parts of the two cities. This power outage caused loss in productivity for many silicon valley companies, disrupted traffic, and interrupted medical care at Stanford Hospital. While the loss of life in from the crash is tragic, the power outage serves an example of the extreme vulnerability of our electrical grid.

In addition to providing more efficient energy delivery that can connect to clean energy sources, a clean energy smart grid also provides security to our power delivery system. In the report, “Powering America’s Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security” the CNA provides a report that gives examples of how the decreasing resiliency of the grid is a threat to many of the services that are vital to our national security. The aging power grid is vulnerable to hackers, natural disasters, and terrorist organizations.

Power outages also cause loss of productivity for the American worker, and can be dangerous for those who are dependent on medical care that is dependent on electricity. The 2003 power outage across the Northeast was estimated to cost between $7 and $10 billion in economic losses.

The smart grid will integrate telecommunication technologies into the power distribution system. The integrated communication ability will enable the grid to heal itself and increase energy storage options. Hopefully, we can take from this incident the importance to continue to push for the investment in America’s Smart Grid.