The power distribution system was made more inefficient by the deregulation of power companies, so that ENRON could create continuing high power prices in California.

The major way of revamping power distribution is to require companies to buy their power locally so that power does not have to be transported long distances.

The major way of local power production and CO2 treduction is combined generation, heating and cooling in all new commercial buildings. UTC, Capstone and others have been building such equipment for years now.

If we can require energy efficiency for refrigerators and stoves, then there must be a mandate for cogeneration by the EPA for new commercial buildings. ..HG..

Most of the transmission loss, from the power generating plants to the end users, are between 7% and 14% for a possible average of about 10%. Most of those losses are in the step-up and step-down transformers and long transmission cables. Under very heavy loads, cable loss go up. Under light loads, transformer loss normally go up. New low loss transformers and much higher transmission lines voltage could reduce those losses by 50%. The remaining 5% loss will be very difficult and costly to eliminate. Better load management could also contribute to more loss reduction but would require ongoing users cooperation. V2G may be used to achieve improved load management.

A little way stop and story from personal experience.
In investigating an electricity meter anomaly, I found that Marsupial mice ( I wouldn't ever admit tat it was rats ) in a wall cavity had decided to build a nest around one electrical cable. Mice and others ave a fondness for chewing cable of all description probably a teeth sharpening exercise.
Well, like the two legged variety, these critters tend to Sh*T IN THEIR OWN NEST (PIE REALLY)
So when my E meter was threatening to take to the air, followed shortly by a system failure, I decided to investigate.
Should I have been surprised to find that the combination of uric acid and 240V had exploded the wire at that point. Fortunately no fire occurred.

I am using this simple example to demonstrate that IMO there is a huge amount of earth return on the grid.

As with the water reticulation services as thy run into the areas of diminishing return the losses begin to rival or in this instance far exceed the legitimate purpose of the grid.

Extrapolate this factual report and convince me that the real rfficiency savings are as low as this report suggests.

Not that I question, indeed this is a very important point.

This applies to Motor vehicle transport and malfunction from the accepted standard (that rarely exists in the Consumer World) but equally to water reticulation.

If any thing the losses that drive this cynical pessimism are understated (in respect of the avoidable ) by ~ 50%!

Not happy but I'll let this go as a very conservative estimate.

Henry Gibson has suggested the best solution. But the key is not only with commercial buildings, but with residential buildings. By offloading 20-30% of the base electrical load on the grid to residential CHP - we immediately lower the demand for bigger, smarter, more efficient grids.

LOCAL energy generation is the wave of the future. This WILL happen - and soon. The question now is will it happen under a considered, slow roll out to more sophisticated systems? Or, by refusing to move forward will it happen by disruptive introduction of new technology?

The players involved are the big energy brokers. Their gamble right now is - fight against giving up a portion of their monopolies (centralized energy) - or accept the transition to renewables and local CHP systems for small business and residences and participate in the profits?

Fifty percent of a dollar is better than 100% of nuttin.

HarveyD,

It seems that the bigger problem is not using new "low loss" transformers (because current utility transformers are very efficient), but to identify when a transformer is having issues.

With everything operating just fine the losses are around 7% - you start to creep up beyond this (to your 10% average) when the transformers begin to become faulty and are not replaced/repaired. Better transformer diagnostics are needed on the existing transformers.