Shorting the Grid
The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid
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Narrated by:
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Eric G. Meyer
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By:
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Meredith Angwin
About this listen
Grid insiders know how fragile the grid is becoming. Unfortunately, they have no incentive to solve the problem because near-misses increase their profits. Meredith Angwin describes how closed meetings, arcane auction rules, and five-minute planning horizons will topple the reliability of our electric grid. Shorting the Grid shines light on the vulnerabilities of our grid, and includes suggestions for making the grid more dependable.
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- By Paul Norris on 09-10-17
By: Tim Harford
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Faster, Higher, Farther
- The Volkswagen Scandal
- By: Jack Ewing
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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A shocking exposé of Volkswagen's fraud by the New York Times reporter who covered the scandal. In mid-2015 Volkswagen proudly reached its goal of surpassing Toyota as the world's largest automaker. A few months later, the EPA disclosed that Volkswagen had installed software in 11 million cars that deceived emissions-testing mechanisms. By early 2017 VW had settled with American regulators and car owners for $20 billion, with additional lawsuits still looming.
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Excellent recap of VW, its structure and culture
- By Northern IN Mark on 05-27-17
By: Jack Ewing
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The Upcycle
- Beyond Sustainability - Designing for Abundance
- By: William McDonough, Michael Braungart
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Upcycle is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Cradle to Cradle, the most consequential ecological manifesto of our time. Now, drawing on the lessons gained from 10 years of putting the cradle-to-cradle concept into practice with businesses, governments, and ordinary people, William McDonough and Michael Braungart envision the next step in the solution to our ecological crisis: We don't just reuse resources with greater effectiveness, we actually improve them as we use them.
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A "must read" for the environmental movement.
- By Love owls on 07-09-13
By: William McDonough, and others
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Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper
- How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong
- By: Robert Bryce
- Narrated by: Steven Menasche
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
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In this provocative and optimistic rebuke to the catastrophists, Robert Bryce shows how innovation and the inexorable human desire to make things Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper is providing consumers with Cheaper and more abundant energy, Faster computing, Lighter vehicles, and myriad other goods. That same desire is fostering unprecedented prosperity, greater liberty, and yes, better environmental protection.
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I thought I was getting a book on the future.
- By Grant on 08-02-14
By: Robert Bryce
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Captive Audience
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Ten years ago, the United States stood at the forefront of the Internet revolution. With some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access, the nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband.
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Great info, dry delivery
- By Chase Vaughan on 02-12-16
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Car Guys vs. Bean Counters
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In 2001, General Motors hired Bob Lutz out of retirement with a mandate to save the company by making great cars again. He launched a war against penny pinching, office politics, turf wars, and risk avoidance. After declaring bankruptcy during the recession of 2008, GM is back on track thanks to its embrace of Lutz's philosophy. When Lutz got into the auto business in the early sixties, CEOs knew that if you captured the public's imagination with great cars, the money would follow.
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Opinionated and one-sided
- By Michael Parks on 06-23-11
By: Bob Lutz
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Economics isn't just about numbers: It's about politics, psychology, history, and so much more. We are all economists - when we work, save for the future, invest, pay taxes, and buy our groceries. Yet many of us feel lost when the subject arises. Award-winning professor Timothy Taylor here tackles all the key questions and hot topics of both microeconomics and macroeconomics, so you can understand and discuss economics on a personal, national, and global level.
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Timothy Taylor is the best
- By Jake on 02-15-15
By: Timothy Taylor
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Glory Lost and Found
- How Delta Climbed from Despair to Dominance in the Post-9/11 Era
- By: Seth Kaplan, Jay Shabat
- Narrated by: Joseph Durika
- Length: 25 hrs and 53 mins
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Glory Lost and Found: How Delta Climbed from Despair to Dominance in the Post-9/11 Era tells the story of Delta's dramatic tumble into bankruptcy and how it climbed its way back to pre-eminence despite hurricane-force headwinds: high fuel prices, a hostile takeover bid, relentless competition, economic meltdowns, and geopolitical shocks.
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For Aviation Enthusiasts & the Business Industry
- By Striker on 03-24-17
By: Seth Kaplan, and others
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The Boom
- How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World
- By: Russell Gold
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
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Performance
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Russell Gold, a brilliant and dogged investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal, has spent more than a decade reporting on one of the biggest stories of our time: the spectacular, world-changing rise of "fracking". Recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award for his work, Gold has traveled along the pipelines and into the hubs of this country’s energy infrastructure; he has visited frack sites from Texas to North Dakota; and he has conducted thousands of interviews with engineers and wildcatters, CEOs and roughnecks, environmentalists and politicians.
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Somehow the author manages to stay balanced
- By Emily C on 05-28-14
By: Russell Gold
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Supercapitalism
- The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Since the 1970s, and notwithstanding three recessions, the U.S. economy has soared. American capitalism has been a triumph, and it has spread throughout the world. At the same time, argues the former U.S. secretary of labor, Robert B. Reich, the effectiveness of democracy in America has declined. It has grown less responsive to the citizenry, and people are feeling more and more helpless as a result.
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Robert Reich for V.P. (of the U.S.)
- By Horace on 11-07-07
By: Robert B. Reich
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Nihil novum sub soli
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Great material but why no pdf?!
- By brooks m tanner on 01-19-22
By: Saul Griffith
What listeners say about Shorting the Grid
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- The Roots
- 11-27-22
A must read!
As a retired Controls engineer from the now decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Generating station I so much appreciate Meredith’s book. It provided a great deal of insight to much of the seemingly idiotic moves to shutdown nuclear energy. I believe nuclear power will come back with a vengeance in the coming years. The world has no choice.
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- AudioBobby
- 10-03-24
Down the Grid Rabbit Hole
Must read if you discovered genre of US power grid books by various authors. Fascinating. The writing style was a bit edgy, but I appreciate the author's perspective. The narration became very choppy at the end of the book. The reader would pause uncomfortably, and it was made even worse by what may be sloppy editing. 1-2 second pauses every few sentences.
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- DickinsonDad
- 06-14-24
A Call to Action
The author shares a careers worth of knowledge and experience regarding grid reliability and opinions on how to influence the debate around the energy transition to maintain that reliability. I agree with the other reviewer that the book would benefit greatly from a pdf with the reference graphs.
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- Peter E. Hackett
- 06-22-24
The story is good / recording is not
The quality of the recording is very poor, but the story is very good. It needs to be re-recorded.
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- Jennifer K
- 08-06-22
A Must listen for all who care about climate, energy security, and prosperity
This audiobook contains crucial information about a complex topic told in a relatable style with humor and clarity. For anyone who wants to better understand how our electricity is managed and delivered, this is a must listen. Eric G. Meyer’s narration is clear, precise, and easy to listen to. After finishing the book I am ready to listen again. There is so much to glean from Dr. Angwin’s research and analysis. You will come out of the experience more informed and armed with guidance on citizen action you can take to help ensure that we build a grid that is reliable, clean, and affordable for all.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Richard Redano
- 12-27-22
Very Informative, But Desperately Needs A pdf
This book provides a wealth of information and insight into electricity pricing and the morass of regulations that jeopardize the stability of our grid. The audiobook makes numerous references to graphs and figures; yet no pdf came with this book. In over 12 years as an Audible subscriber, I have not listened to another Audible book that referenced graphs or figures without including a pdf that contained those references. I feel CHEATED by this publisher who was too cheap to provide a pdf. Additionally, Audible should have quality control standards that prevent such deficiencies.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Micah Babbitt
- 09-25-22
An important book for every energy professional
extremely thorough review of today's issues with the electric power grid and potential solutions
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- Elba
- 09-04-22
Great education on the electric grid
I am getting smarter on clean energy. This was a great book to learn basics and to help form my own opinions. I am reading all sides of the debates. I highly recommend this book and plan to read the other 3 key books the author cited as fundamental to her work. If you are serious about energy sustainability through intelligent perspective, invest time in this long book.
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- N. Skachkov
- 12-02-23
Decent intro to the grid, but disorganized
Some others have mentioned that this seemed to be more of a means to tie together a bunch of blog posts than a "wing to wing" exploration of the grid. Overall it's a pretty good, but biased review (unapologetically, but very up front and honest about it) of a lot of the policy and structure of the grid. I appreciated the discussion about renewables at the end, but it still seemed a bit all over the place pulling in other bits and end from the rest of the book. Almost exclusively based on New England ISO which is kind of ok but it made the book seem as if the point was to say - "this is how NEISO operates so just extrapolate the same thing to the rest of the country" which isn't true and more discussion about other areas would have been a good addition as well as more coverage of areas not under an RTO. Basically it's a book about RTOs and specifically New England ISO. if you're looking for more about technology, how things work, and some policy background - this book only focuses on the last part and in only 1 part of the country at that. very pro-nuclear with a well laid out case for it which I also appreciated.
(my background is from the power/energy sector, but on the services side so I have no stake in the personal opinions of the author, but do have some background knowledge of the system).
if you buy this book, I suggest watching an hour or so of YouTube videos about the grid and some power basics just so you're not starting cold - that'll help you take in a lot more from this book.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Zach Morrow
- 02-27-23
Feels Fragmented and Regional
[2/3 through now, probably will finish and update]
I want to like this book, it's just very hard to stay actively listening to. I can't tell of it's the story or the narration though. I shifted from my normal 1.2x to 1.1x to 0.95x.
The narrator unexpectedly and suddenly shifts tones or pitches, as if many multiple seperate conversations were spliced together. Maybe there are cut-out blurbs in the actual book? If so, some notification would be helpful. I also think the narrator didn't understand what they were saying, as if reading a book aloud in class. Makes an already acronym dense book harder to follow because, I think, the emphasis(es?) are in odd spots.
I wish the story itself wasn't predominantly about the Northeast's power grid and had a more country wide perspective, even if the view had to shift from 5,000 feet to 30,000 feet. I realize it's the author's experience and "the grid" is a collection of regional areas, but there's a lot of details about specifically the politics of the Northeast's grid that could be cut to someone not from there.
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