From today's EEI newsletter:
U.S. Electricity Demand Sets New Record
U.S. demand for electricity reached an all-time record for the week ending July 22, amid a punishing national heat wave, Energy Daily reported, citing new information from EEI. According to EEI’s weekly survey of electric demand, U.S. utilities delivered 96,314 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity last week, surpassing by more than 1 percent last year's record of 95,259 GWh (set during the week ending July 23, 2005).
Energy Daily quoted EEI President Tom Kuhn as saying: "The nation’s electric energy infrastructure was tested severely last week and, with isolated exceptions, [Yes, isolated exceptions such as NY, LA, PA, and St. Louis. Other than that, no problems] the lights and air conditioners stayed on."
According to an EEI press release, "Kuhn said utilities are working around the clock to keep pace with the burgeoning demand for electricity and he praised the emergency workers who poured into the St. Louis area after it was hit by heat and a devastating storm that caused a widespread power outage."
EEI’s "Weekly Electric Output" survey, the only comprehensive report of its kind in the U.S., has been measuring electricity demand for more than 70 years and is available to EEI members and other subscribers.
Energy Daily , Reuters, July 27; EEI news release , July 26.
You can't keep hitting record peaks every week and not expect those "isolated exceptions" to become the rule.
WHERE the FUCK are our leaders? Mandatory national conservation measures are needed RIGHT NOW to prevent really serious national blackouts. Somehow, I imagine this is a bit more important than whether some teenager gets to abort the child her abusive father got on her or whether the words "under God" stay in the pledge. But that's just me and it's mostly because I prefer my martinis chilled and my freezer runs on electrons unlike, apparently, everyone else's.
5 comments:
BTW, thank you for your comment (I only saw one, perhaps you play The Good Reminder other times) asking people to get up from their computer to go around their dwelling turning off all unnecessary electricity using items.
I actually did it--found two rooms lit which absolutely didn't have anyone in them, except for cats, one radio playing in another empty room, and went out to the garage to check, finding a low-wattage bulb on--but even 7 watts adds on....
Thank you!
jawbone
tell them if the power grid goes down, the snowflake babies will melt. that'll get 'em off their ass.
Gives "gridlock" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?
But it's okay - when the Greenland ice sheet falls into the ocean and floods the coastlines that'll take care of a bunch of electricity users. After the resulting melted fresh water shuts down the Atlantic's water cycle, the resulting deep winter will clear out much of the northern countries in Europe and North America. The increased heat in other latitudes will make most of those uninhabitable, so we'll none of us be worrying too much about electricity on the grid any more.
And where is that shot? Vaq brink? Where's that????
That water looks appetising enough for me to want to swim in it, which must be saying something about my state of mind.
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