America’s Infrastructure Report Card, produced by the ASCE, is released every four years and has the purpose of bringing to light the existing infrastructure problems and limitations in different sectors within the United States, ranging from bridges and dams to wastewater and energy. The ASCE’s committee is made up of 28 civil engineers who work closely with technical and industry experts, assessing relevant data and reports, and then assigning grades based on aspects such as current capability, future need, resilience, funding, and more.

Today’s episode is all about the last report card, which was released in 2017. We focused on the energy sector, specifically when it comes to electricity. The overall grade assigned to the sector as a whole was an alarming D+, which, according to ASCE’s criterion, means that “(...) A large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration. Condition and capacity are of serious concern with a strong risk of failure”.

Isaac, as a practicing professional engineer in the energy industry working at a utility firm, is the right person to talk about this previous grade given in 2017, and how it may differ from the next one coming right up in 2021. Why do we face so many issues in the sector? Is it likely that we’ll see the same concerns appear once again in the 2021 report card? Maybe. But what are some measures we can take now to make this grade go up for the next report cards? It’s all in today’s episode!

Resources Mentioned

America’s Infrastructure Report Card (2017) - https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org

Energy Infrastructure Report (2017) - https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/energy

American Society of Civil Engineers - https://www.asce.org

The National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) - https://standards.ieee.org/products-services/nesc/index.html

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