Electrical Dependency of California: Problem and Solution
Californians depend on electricity. It powers everything from the phone we use to the freezer that stores goods at the local grocery store. Electricity is part of the infrastructure of California, similar in nature to water supply and food supply. Without the electrical grid system, urbanized society will not function. Electricity is a commodity and a necessity. However, recent failures in power supply due to man-made errors and harsh weather question the stability of the power system.
On September 9th, 2011, I have personally experienced the massive power outage in Southern California. The blackout, which lasted over 11 hours from the afternoon of the 9th to the morning of the 10th, caused major traffic congestions in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego. Stop lights and street lights were non-functional, making every intersection a four-way stop. As a safety precaution, officials suspended schools and local universities for one day. That night, suburban residents of San Diego went to bed early, at around 9 o’ clock, because there was no electricity to power the lamp and internet-router which kept people up past sun-down. Consequently, the overall productivity of businesses decreased due to crippled traffic. In a published article from San Diego Union Tribune, the president of the National University System's Institute for Policy Research, estimated a loss of $97 million to $118 million from the loss of productivity in the affected areas (Showley, 2011).
The reason for the blackout was none other than mistake of one man and the inadequate response of many. When one maintenance worker caused the loss of one power line, the adjacent power systems connecting from Ariz...
... middle of paper ...
....
Works Cited
Hennessey-Fiske, M. (2014, January 6). Dangerous “polar vortex” grips Midwest; 16 below in Chicago. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/ la-na-nn-polar-vortex-deep-freeze-20140106,0,6314452.story#axzz30UeUj2i7
Mataconis, D. (2014, February 7). Sniper attack on power station in California raises terrorism threat. Outside the Beltway. Retrieved from http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/sniper-attack-on-power-station-in-california-raises-terrorism-threat/
Showley, R. (2011, September 10). Despite losses, blackout may bring some good. San Diego Union Tribune.
United Press International Staff. (2014, February 15). Wind, snow cause power outages in U.S. northeast. United Press International. Retrieved from http://www.upi.com/Top_News/ US/2014/02/15/Winds-snow-cause-power-outages-in-US-Northeast/UPI-88901392476908/
States on the lee, or down wind, sides of the great lakes receive lake-effect snow every year. For some cities this can push the average snowfall up to 400 inches. During the February storm of this year records were broken for the most snowfall in one storm. For a duration of the storm snow was falling at a rate of six inches or more per hour. Some of the images captured from the event leave some in disbelief that such a thing could even happen. Storms of this magnitude completely shut down all activity. Many areas do not have equipment capable of handling such mass amounts of snow, and even if they do the task is overwhelming. (weather.com 2006)
In July, 2004 Doyle had called for a legislation to prevent massive power blackouts like the one that hit the northeast this past year. In August 14, 2003, a massive power outage affected more than 50 million people in eight different stats, Ontario, and Quebec in Canada. Many households were without power for several days. This blackout began in Ohio, where three transmission lines short-circuited. An investigation found that the energy company that owned those power lines was in violation of at least four North Electric Reliability Council operating standards. Doyle introduced almost a year ago a legislation that would establish a national Electric Reliability Organization to enforce power reliability standards across the country. If an organization was to be established it
After a disaster hits, it takes a long time for the local and state government to regain its basic functions and to draft redevelopment plans (Olshansky et al., 2008). With malfunctioning government, it is hard to start the recovery process promptly and citizens who are in need of immense amount of economic and social support suffer from lack of resources and public services.
The down side with this was if there was a power cut Reeve would not
... be fostered. Nevertheless, current coordination is not bad as the MTA is the overall umbrella agency that has coordinated diverse emergency response organizations in the city of New York. For instance, during the time of the blackout, diverse stakeholders shared information although communication systems were weak. The impact of the blackout on the transportation sector and health of New York City was severe and key lessons can be learnt. Learning from past experience such as the blackout in 2003 has been attested by Volpe (2004) who indicates that experience would help improve future emergency response. This can also help design effective emergency policies and plans. Personnel had previously become familiar with each other through day-to-day operations and joint terrorism exercises. However, further research is recommended to expound more on this issue in detail.
On August 14th, 2003, a major blackout swept across portions of the northeastern United States and Canada. It was reported that a series of equipment outages in the Midwest led to uncontrolled cascading outages of power transmission lines and generators serving parts of the Northeast, Midwest and Canada. Automatic protective systems operated to open circuits and shut down power plants to prevent further spread of the outages. This is very similar to what happened in The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965. In both situations, the “grid system” shut down one generator in line at a time to protect a surge from the station before it.
People stuck in the big mess, civil disorders began to characterize by arson, heavy looting in everywhere without controls. From the Washington Post, the academic article “How the 1977 blackout unleashed New York City's tough-on-crime politics” by a historian of twentieth-century American politics Kimberly Phillips-Fein, she also described the vile situation of the blackout (1977). There was the data pointed out after power outage for twenty-five hours, “more than 1,600 stores throughout the city were robbed …In some parts of the city, stores and buildings were torched as well. This wave of spontaneous property destruction, occurring in all five boroughs and at least 31 neighborhoods.”, could be imagined the public situation was serious and the level of destruct by the
January 12, 1888, a blizzard covered the northwest part of North America that claimed many lives. This blizzard was considered to be the worst blizzard of all time, and was dubbed the “the Schoolchildren’s Blizzard”, for claiming the lives of so many school children on their way home. The death toll of this murderous blizzard rose, because of lack of preparation and being uninformed. During this time, many farmers and families were unprepared to survive a blizzard of this magnitude, by the lack of clothing they wore. Forecasters were not as accurate enough to inform people on the weather conditions. Also, shelter was a major factor in protecting themselves from the winter storms, but the shelter was not stable
The utility companies in California are forced to pay more for the electricity than they are allowed to collect from their consumers. In turn, they are building up debts to banks and electrical suppliers which they are unable to repay. The supply of electricity has fallen, the demand has risen, yet the consumers are still paying the same prices due to the price freeze enacted by the government.
Jonnes, Jill. “Blackouts? Edison Might Say, ‘I Told You So’.” New York Times 2 Oct.
The northern blackout of 2003 should be analyzed, in order to gain awareness of the failures leading to the disaster, to prevent similar disasters from occurring in the future. Learning about the failures will help to engineer a more successful model of the system. Many improvements can be made in the areas of communication, safety training and system improvements. Implementing these changes are essential as they are crucial to maintaining a stable economy, security and safety (Allen, Stuart and Wiedman, 2014).
Wouldn’t it be difficult living without electricity? We live in a world where technology is constantly being innovated; therefore I feel it would be. In Topeka, especially on the eastern side of town, buildings are old and so are the power lines that energize them. These lines were designed based on the design of the infrastructures that were built around the same time. Since then a lot of development has occurred and has since caused problems due to power lines being above ground. The general design was based on tracing developments via easements and sidewalks. Tim Hrenchir, an editor for the Topeka Capitol Journal, stated that weather and tree branches are the cause of forty percent of city power outages; while another eight percent is due to traffic accidents (Hrenchir). Where would you say the problem lays?
To many Haitian, the issue of electricity remains a serious problem for decades. According to World Bank, solely 25 per cent of the population in Haiti has energy supply (World Bank 2012). Further, the Organization states that” People often have to use candle because of poor energy supply”. The public entity responsible for distributing electricity in Haiti is Called EDH (Electricity of Haiti), operating under the Ministry of public transport and communication (MTPTC). The latter entity’s main objective is design, define and implement the policy of the Executive Power in the areas Public Works, Transport, Communications, drinking water, energy and in all other areas defined by the law (MTPTC 2007). However, many have agreed that this entity has failed to its mission. According to (Dorzilme.L, 2004), “The distribution of the electricity in the Haitian Capital has dropped from 24 hours before 1986 to 15 to 18 hours in 1990 to 1994, then to 7 to 13 hours of energy from 2007 to 2013. Actually the public demonstrations in Cayes (Southside of Haiti) to condemn the poor level
My electric fence stopped working, for there is no electricity. I found out the evening of the day I woke up. House lights went out, electronics stopped functioning, vehicles wouldn’t start. ‘They had set off an EMP and now the world I know has been cast back into the dark ages.
Electricity has become a basic necessity for most people all over the world. We are depending on electricity for our everyday lives and if one day we did not have electricity we would have difficulty going through the day. I think we need to be more dependent on things that do not use electricity and only use electricity sometimes as a treat so just in case if one day electricity all goes away we could still live comfortably and still have a great life even without it.