Electricity
One of the most prominent means to adapt to a changing climate, including heat waves and the urban heat island, is to rely on mechanical cooling (air conditioning). However, when service is interrupted we increase the likelihood that vulnerable segments of our population will be adversely affected.
By 2025, US electricity consumption is projected to grow by 50% over 2003 levels. To meet this rising demand while retiring inefficient older plants, 281,000 megawatts of new power-generation capacity will be needed by 2025 &emp; equivalent to almost 950 new power plants of 300 megawatts each. Electricity demand is growing even faster globally, especially in developing countries. Warren et al. surveyed 161 US utilities in 1998 to gather information on interruption calculations and reporting. Only about half the respondents were required to report regulator-defined information, including reliability indices, with index definitions varying substantially. There appeared to be larger discrepancies in major event definitions.
Presently in the United States power interruption reporting is not standardized, which is indicative of the decentralized configuration of the power industry itself. On the whole, public utilities are required to report to their state public utilities commission (PUC) as well as to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Not all interruption events are required to be reported, so some may be reported to the state level but not the federal level.And each state has a unique reporting language.
Researchers of this virtual organization are developing a national tracking system of localized power interruptions to examine the linkages to human health and reliability patterns.
