While everyone is gearing up for 9/11 Plus Five in just a few weeks, let's not forget that three years ago today, a major blackout cut power to about 50 million people across the U.S. Northeast and Ontario. While by no means was the blackout as catastrophic as a terrorist attack, it did have its own iconic moments (like volunteer traffic cops showing up at every intersection). Actually, given time, some moments have become even more meaningful, like Bill Graham appearing on The National cluelessly standing outside in the dark...The blackout also briefly raised the issue of energy privatization and consumption. At the time, too many private producers were overloading the continental electrical grid for too many people using too many air conditioners. Today...more of the same, and it's reached the point where Ontario now uses more electricity during the summer than they do during the winter months*.However, that message was heard in places like British Columbia, where, despite some dickering with independent production, publicly-owned BC Hydro keeps rates down by aggressively encouraging conservation through such initiatives as the Power Smart program: Less profit motive, less consumption. After the blackout, plans to push further privatization were quietly shelved, especially when higher profile industries like Forest Products warned of mill closures throughout BC if electric bills started to jump. While Utilities can't guarantee there won't be any more blackouts, in BC it's because BC Hyrdo can't control the forces of nature, like high winds knocking out power lines. For other utilities, it's the forces of the market they can't control, and the manual has yet to be written about how to fix that kind of damage.
*The Weather Network
2 comments:
Indeed, privatization is not the answer. The electrical grid is still a publicly owned domain, and as long as that is the case, the public has a fighting chance to encourage the States to overhaul it. Rolling blackouts are beginning to decrease, with the most recent early '07 estimates that just over 2 million homes were without power in 2006, down from somewhere around 4.5 million in 2003. (mainly attributed to the August 2003 blackout.) This is due to decreased strain and a lot more distributed generation, but that won't hold up for long! Energy consumption is steadily increasing, and many advocates want to inject the system with excess renewable energy to meet these demands affordably, but that prospect pays little mind to the industry's best-kept secret. Renewable energy can be dispatched much the same way as conventional fossil fuel electricity, but tends to flow in higher capacity volumes to counteract its intermitency. A flood of renewable electricity will be the 'straw' that breaks the camel's back if we don't upgrade our electrical grid to handle such an increase in capacity. The risks, of course, are higher in the summer and winter--and the number of deaths could reach as high as 500,000 people in metropolitian areas alone if blackouts were to prevent vital heating and cooling systems from working on that large of a scale.
Instead of privatizing electricity generation, or deregulating the same, the State Public Utility Commissions need to address the needs of an ever-aging grid and implement yearly upgrade projects. If we switch to renewable electricity in a desperate attempt to stabilize prices, we will surely have the consequence of a large short-term death toll.
Rick Fairbanks, Earth Institute, Columbia University.
Should read 50 million in 2003. RF
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