03-28-2009, 08:46 PM
Dak--
The only reason we're not looking at rolling blackouts country-wide is that we're in a recession/depression. Our generating and transmission capacity is less than our demand, overall. Where did I learn this ? Direct from an engineer who works with this sort of thing at our local generating facility.
Let's face it- we have a huge demand for electrical energy. Reducing the demand by using lower powered devices is a big step. Electrical efficiency improvements have been significant in the last 10 years (anyone else here know about the NEMA HIgh efficiency mandate on electrical motors in the late 90's ?).
While the consumer selling point on energy efficiency is energy cost savings, from the industrial side its about overall cost reduction- if the demand is less than the capacity, costs go down. If it's more, they can pay for those highly expensive portable turbine generators that run on diesel or natural gas.
Electrical capacity on this nation is a house of cards, or have you forgotten the nationwide blackout earlier this decade ?
The only reason we're not looking at rolling blackouts country-wide is that we're in a recession/depression. Our generating and transmission capacity is less than our demand, overall. Where did I learn this ? Direct from an engineer who works with this sort of thing at our local generating facility.
Let's face it- we have a huge demand for electrical energy. Reducing the demand by using lower powered devices is a big step. Electrical efficiency improvements have been significant in the last 10 years (anyone else here know about the NEMA HIgh efficiency mandate on electrical motors in the late 90's ?).
While the consumer selling point on energy efficiency is energy cost savings, from the industrial side its about overall cost reduction- if the demand is less than the capacity, costs go down. If it's more, they can pay for those highly expensive portable turbine generators that run on diesel or natural gas.
Electrical capacity on this nation is a house of cards, or have you forgotten the nationwide blackout earlier this decade ?