Electricity fails in California

Friday 11th May 2001

It has been a long time coming but this week has seen the first examples of the long feared power cuts hitting California. If the troubles surrounding electricity supplies in the huge state are not resolved in the next few weeks is there the possibility that the high tech companies that are based there may start looking for new homes? Does the rest of the world have anything to learn?

As summer temperatures took hold over the last few days, America did what comes naturally to them. They switched on the air conditioning causing the disruption of electricity supplies to many parts of California. The state has had problems with power supplies for the past few months and it is feared that the summer may see ongoing series of cuts as supplies fail to meet ever-increasing demands.

Over the past twelve months California has experienced an increased demand for electricity of around two to three percent. During the same time Silicon Valley, the home of many high tech, new economy companies, has seen power requirements rise by over twelve percent. On Monday, even the mighty Yahoo! suffered the consequences of a cut as a backup generator failed, causing an interruption of service experienced by many. Yahoo! reported that full service was not restored until later that evening.

It is expected that the power shortages will continue throughout the summer and the expectation is that power cuts will undoubtedly become a facet of every day life. For the western world, it has become accepted wisdom that anyone can flick a switch, any switch at any time of day or night and the electricity infrastructure will swing into action to provide power. Electricity has become the service that defines the term “utility”. Power cuts are now predicted to cost businesses millions of dollars over the coming months. There are even fears that some companies may look to relocate to other areas in the US that have more reliable supplies.

Is this the beginning of the end of California’s undoubted dominance of all things high tech? It is too early to tell, but Silicon Valley is not the only location that may suffer as power becomes unreliable. Other US locations have been hit by power cuts over the last year, including northern Virginia. Can we realistically expect to have our ever-growing demands for power, especially electricity, met without more thought being given to consumption over all? In any field it is unreasonable to expect unlimited growth without end. There are physical limits that must be respected. Western Europe is no exception to this rule.

At the moment the power utilities of Europe expect to be able to deal with the demands that are predicted. However, even parts of London are experiencing huge growth in electricity requirements as e-business creates an ever increasing burden to be serviced. We can cope now, but maybe this is a good time to ensure that we plan for the future to ensure that we never experience again the power cuts that the California is putting up with. After all, some of us can remember the dark days of power cuts in the Seventies. Candlepower will not provide the answers now if the lights go out.

Maybe "Planning" does have a place in the real world.

http://www.it-director.com/article_pf.asp?id=1805

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 11, 2001