In a nutshell

Reading "Lights Out" is like listening to the ramblings of an opinionated utility industry insider who tells interesting stories and explains complex energy issues in layman's terms. Jason Makansi provocatively pitches his predictable prescriptions for what ails us, in a book that's an excellent entry point for new participants in the national energy debate.

Why I liked it, and shortcomings

Makansi is one of the sector's old-timers, an engineer by training, who has spent his career in energy. His writing is folksy and approachable. He's able to explain how things work (with a great background on the grid in chapter 2) and makes jumbled energy policy make some sense.

Almost every source of energy is mentioned in "Lights Out," including efficiency, but Makansi predictably spends most of the book discussing coal, natural gas and nuclear in detail, explaining his theories for managing them. He favors new mine-mouth coal-fired power plants, primarily to ship power by wire rather than by train (chapter 10). It's one form of locating power generation closer to the point of use -- distributed generation (chapter 17) -- and enables adjoining industrial parks to use the byproducts.

Renewables

"Jason Makansi has compiled a comprehensive chronicle of our energy problems and his own prescription for fixing it."

New transmission lines are acceptable for new coal plants, but he doesn't feel the same way about wind power. The difference, in his view, is that wind power doesn't produce power full time and doesn't warrant new transmission to make it possible. Makansi was an energy storage technology lobbyist, and devotes chapter 13 to the merits of storage. But he reserves support for wind until storage is perfected. Solar -- one of the ultimate forms of clean distributed energy -- is barely mentioned.

Transmission

Transmission lines are the central theme, if there is one, to "Lights Out." In chapter 18 he advocates an intelligent grid, although he calls the term a "marketing ploy" designed to secure funding for research. His definition of intelligence is automation; the discussion ranges from remote monitoring to interactive devices (think automated demand response) to transmission corridors. The need to improve the grid, he says, is on the level of a national emergency.

Nuclear

Makansi also advocates expanding nuclear power as an "immediate solution to global warming." He devotes chapter 15 to recommending nuclear over coal on the basis of uranium's energy density and nuclear's lack of carbon emissions. Little mention is given to the energy intensity of uranium mining and transport, nor to the fuel's skyrocketing price and finite supply. He acknowledges that "a small high-level spent fuel waste stream must be managed for hundreds of years or regenerated into more nuclear fuel" and advises the latter -- government-run reprocessing.

"Fear is often irrational to me," he writes, "and that includes the fear of nuclear power. As a society, we need to grow up, frankly." The nuke chapter outlines the history of nuclear power and counts the pros and cons -- with distinct emphasis on the pros -- of putting that irrational fear behind us. Although Makansi supports deregulation throughout the energy industry, he recommends continued regulatory oversight at a reduced level for nuclear. This would be more efficient, he says, if all nuclear plants were consolidated into the control of three utility companies.

Rx for change

Makansi ends the book with a letter to the President spelling out the author's prescription for keeping the lights on: Shift research funding to the demand side of the market and especially to a federalized transmission infrastructure; develop cogeneration, microgrids and energy storage; regulate energy efficiency; deploy smart meters; build nuclear and coal plants; sequester carbon. Nothing imaginative, here, it's counsel just about anyone from the utility industry would be expected to give.

National debate

The book opens with a reminder of what it's like to live through an extended power outage. The final page closes it with a call to make energy an understandable part of our everyday discourse.

"We should be talking about electricity when the lights are on, not just when the lights go out. We should be debating" the future of energy supply.

In "Lights Out" Jason Makansi has compiled a comprehensive chronicle of our energy problems and his own prescription for fixing it. The book is filled with interesting facts and provocative opinions. Americans obsess over gas prices and are scarcely aware that our electric infrastructure is in dire straits. The issues Makansi raises are now a national debate. I feel better prepared for it. Join in.

"Lights Out" by Jason Makansi, published by John Wiley & Sons, June 2007, 306 pages, $27.95.