VIVAERO New analysis details how air traffic control towers can maintain operations during grid outages Every day, more than 44,000 flights overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) take off and land nationwide, coordinated by people working out of airport traffic control towers (ATCTs). ATCTs are critical infrastructure for the American economy and transportation, guiding the transit of many tons of air cargo annually and millions of people, too. Without ATCTs, air travel could be less safe—or even grind to a halt. Their failure, whether due to grid overloads or natural disasters, would be catastrophic. That is why the FAA and the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) partnered to identify how FAA staff might make ATCTs energy self-sustaining : capable of generating or storing the energy they need for a long period of time without support from the grid. "The electric grid is under severe stress today from increased demand and intensifying wildfires and storms,...
