Engineer A has an ethical obligation to include information about the utility generation mix and potential rolling blackouts in a report to the organization’s board. Engineer A’s report should also include information about cost of battery storage and the potential consequences of not having battery storage on system reliability relative to public safety, health, and welfare.

As a registered professional, Engineer A is obliged to include relevant and pertinent information in a report to the board. A report that does not contain information about the reliability of the utility source will not help them make an informed decision. An ethical corollary to the organization’s decision to replace an on-demand, fossil-fueled generator with solar production without storage is worthy of discussion. With the current co-generation facility and a like-in-kind replacement, a presumably large electric load served by the utility can either stand alone or be operated to greatly reduce the electric load on a power system that will be stressed during extreme weather events. If the solar production without storage option moves forward, the organization will increase its green footprint and will support a laudable goal of increasing environmentally friendly energy production. But this option may also increase the likelihood of future rolling blackouts. It is not difficult to imagine, for example, the stress placed upon elderly or confined individuals as well as those with medical conditions if they are left without a comfortable environment during an extreme weather event such as California and Texas recently experienced - and which led to rolling blackouts. What guidance can Engineer A rely upon to address a potential conflict between competing public goods? BER Case 98-5 describes how Engineer Adam serves as director of a building department in a major city. Engineer Adam has been concerned that as a result of a series of budget cutbacks and more rigid code enforcement requirements, the city has been unable to provide a sufficient number of qualified individuals to perform adequate and timely building inspections. Each code official member of Engineer Adam’s staff is often required to make as many as 60 code inspections per day. Engineer Adam believes there is no way even the most conscientious code official can make 60 adequate, much less thorough, ins...

Engineer A works for an organization that for years has operated a fossil-fueled co-generation facility primarily to supply thermal energy for process needs. The facility has the capability to produce electric energy when thermal energy needs are satisfied, in fact, there are times when a significant portion of the organization’s electric energy is supplied by the co-generation facility. The generator is approaching the end of its useful life and will require a substantial investment to remain operational.Recently, stakeholders have expressed interest in reducing the organization’s carbon footprint, and these stakeholders suggest that the facility eliminate the generator and replace it with solar panels. After careful study of the facility electric load profile and the capability of the proposed solar energy system, Engineer A is satisfied that under normal conditions, the system of solar panels can supply electric energy equivalent to that provided by the existing generator. Capital constraints prevent the organization from installing a system of batteries to store energy for use at night or in bad weather, but the cost of installing the solar panels is essentially the same as the cost to rebuild the generator.When discussing the analysis of the electric load profile with a representative of the local electric utility, Engineer A learns that the utility resource planners reviewed their current generation mix and believe that during extreme weather events, they may be forced to institute rolling outages to keep system generating facilities on-line.Engineer A is preparing a report that will be presented to the board to consider the new solar project, and is convinced that the solar project, when considered in isolation, is viable and will satisfy those stakeholders interested in reducing the organization’s carbon footprint. Engineer A also realizes that a move to solar production without storage may stress the local utility generation mix even more, increasing the l...

Should Engineer A include information about the utility generation mix and rolling blackouts in the report to the board? Should Engineer A include information about cost of battery storage and the potential consequences of not having battery storage?