I agree with all of this, but would add that even the federal government describes power infrastructure with sentences like, "aging and ... being pushed to do more than it was originally designed to do" (https://energy.gov/oe/services/technology-development/smart-...).
I'm not a power grid engineer. I don't have the knowledge to make useful, specific suggestions. I do live in an area with semi-regular power outages, whether caused by demand (summertime AC usage), thunderstorm, falling tree branches, vehicle vs. pole accidents, and other major component failure (the occasional transformer light show or squirrel suicide-by-transformer). In every case, PG&E appears to be coming out and replacing failed equipment with ... identical equipment. To their credit, they do it fairly quickly.
I seriously doubt though that the current situation is the best they can afford to do, especially with the current political focus on infrastructure.
See one of my sibling responses. Is it the best we can afford? Maybe, maybe not. There is a good chance, though, that the cost of dealing with semi-regular outages is not above the cost of replacing the system with one that is immune to them.
I say this, of course, as someone that doesn't live in a place with regular outages. I think I've experienced 4 in the past decade. And a couple of those were following a massive wind storm. The street was out of capacity longer than the power was.
I'm not a power grid engineer. I don't have the knowledge to make useful, specific suggestions. I do live in an area with semi-regular power outages, whether caused by demand (summertime AC usage), thunderstorm, falling tree branches, vehicle vs. pole accidents, and other major component failure (the occasional transformer light show or squirrel suicide-by-transformer). In every case, PG&E appears to be coming out and replacing failed equipment with ... identical equipment. To their credit, they do it fairly quickly.
I seriously doubt though that the current situation is the best they can afford to do, especially with the current political focus on infrastructure.