Scientific American (May 20)
“When California suffers a heat wave, it leans heavily on hydropower from the Pacific Northwest to keep the lights on. But that hydropower may not always be available when it’s most needed” due to climate change. “Higher temperatures means snowmelt occurs earlier in the year and leaves less water available for power generation during the depths of summer. The result is a heightened risk of blackouts during extreme heat waves as a result of less hydro availability.”
Tags: Availability, Blackouts, California, Climate change, Heat wave, Hydropower, Pacific Northwest, Power generation, Risk, Snowmelt, Summer, Temperatures, Water
South China Morning Post (October 18)
Coal prices have “more than tripled in a year to near historical highs” and look poised to keep climbing, driven by a coal shortage that could threaten the global economic recovery. “Blackouts could spread from China and India to all the emerging economies still mostly reliant on coal. As supply can’t be ramped up in the near term, the shortages could worsen as energy demand rises with winter’s arrival. That may trigger another emerging-market crisis.”
Tags: Blackouts, China, Coal, Demand, Economic recovery, Emerging-market crisis, Energy, India, Prices, Reliant, Shortage, Supply, Threaten, Tripled, Winter
Euromoney (April Issue)
“Blackouts have become so widespread on the island of Mindanao that social-media users have taken to calling the energy secretary the secretary of darkness.” This highlights the need for infrastructure, not just in the Philippines, but throughout much of ASEAN where the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates “infrastructure projects will require sustained annual investment of approximately $60 billion a year to 2020.” Banking giant HSBC believes “demand in Asia as a whole might reach $11.5 trillion by 2030.”
Tags: ADB, Asean, Asia, Blackouts, Energy, Infrastructure, Investment, Mindanao, Philippines, Social media, Widespread
LA Times (March 16)
“Californians may be inured to rolling blackouts that cut off their power for hours at a time, but imagine an outage that darkens the entire country — for more than a year.” A federal report, disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, shows this “nightmare scenario” could result if just nine critical substations were knocked out. Officials need to take action and “address the frightening challenges posed by the grid’s reliance on custom-fitted equipment that can take months, if not years, to replace.”
Tags: Action, Blackouts, California, Challenges, Equipment, Grid, Nightmare, Outage, Power, Scenario, Substations
New York Times (August 1)
India outdid its recent outage (see below), with “all the makings of a disaster movie: More than half a billion people without power. Trains motionless on the tracks. Miners trapped underground. Subway lines paralyzed. Traffic snarled in much of the national capital. On Tuesday, India suffered the largest electrical blackout in history, affecting an area encompassing about 670 million people, or roughly 10 percent of the world’s population.”
India outdid its recent outage, with “all the makings of a disaster movie: More than half a billion people without power. Trains motionless on the tracks. Miners trapped underground. Subway lines paralyzed. Traffic snarled in much of the national capital. On Tuesday, India suffered the largest electrical blackout in history, affecting an area encompassing about 670 million people, or roughly 10 percent of the world’s population.”
Tags: 670 million, Blackouts, India, Power failure
Washington Post (July 30)
India has brought power failure to new levels. “While the midsummer outage was unique in its reach — it hit 370 million people, more than the population of the United States and Canada combined — its impact was softened by Indians’ familiarity with almost daily blackouts of varying duration. Hospitals and major businesses have backup generators that seamlessly kick in during power cuts, and upscale homes are hooked to backup systems powered by truck batteries.”
India has brought power failure to new levels. “While the midsummer outage was unique in its reach — it hit 370 million people, more than the population of the United States and Canada combined — its impact was softened by Indians’ familiarity with almost daily blackouts of varying duration. Hospitals and major businesses have backup generators that seamlessly kick in during power cuts, and upscale homes are hooked to backup systems powered by truck batteries.”
Tags: 370 million, Blackouts, Generators, India, Power failure
