By Chet McWhorter, general manager of Cuming County Public Power District

    I was visiting with my oldest sibling the other day. We were talking about life and so on as one does with someone, they have known their entire life. You know, where you talk about everything and nothing in the same breath with full knowledge that there is no breakdown in communication or intent by either party. The conversation turned to work, as it often does, and I was asked about quotes and why I use them in my writing. I replied, "I’m not smart enough to explain my ideas so I find someone smarter than me and use their words to describe the thought.” To which she replied, “So, you don’t really have new ideas?” Which hurts if I’m honest but is accurate. As the wisest man in the world, King Solomon, stated “There is nothing new under the sun.” Wouldn’t life be simpler if all communication was so clear and pure?
    So, why did I reveal this secret conversation with my mean old sister? Because she is wise, and she made me think long and hard about what it is that we are trying to accomplish here and why we are trying to accomplish it. From my perspective, we are in the middle of the largest singular transition in human history. We are on the precipice of Artificial Intelligence in the mainstream, we are in the middle of transitioning the entirety of ground transportation from direct fossil fuel/internal combustion engines to a more indirect fossil fuel powered battery type drivetrain and as if that weren’t enough, we are transitioning our power system away from tried-and-true baseload generation to intermittent, unpredictable, and less-reliable renewable generation resources. As noted, this is a huge transition!
    Normally, I’m all about change. I love the unpredictability and ebb and flow of life. When change is made for change’s sake, I lose my desire to participate. Electricity has become so intertwined into our existence in the modern world that it is hard to imagine what life would be like without this readily available, reliable, and affordable tool. The federal government is pushing towards the precipice of what the grid can truly handle and once the tipping point of too many non-dispatchable, intermittent generation resources is reached, we will experience blackouts, brownouts, and/or complete outages. This is a real fear that I have, and it is becoming all the more likely with each passing day and each passing idea that comes along driving us away from the tried-and-true baseload generation. We must maintain a balance between renewable energy resources and nuclear, hydroelectric, and fossil-fueled baseload generation resources.
    What, you may ask, are you to do with this information? I recommend reading this magazine and other trusted sources for news of the electrical industry and when you see something that doesn’t make sense to you, I recommend that you reach out to your local utility and/or your elected officials and tell them how you feel. If more folks stay engaged and aware, we can save this system and keep the lights on for generations.