Electricity supply vulnerabilities
December 6th, 2007 by Jim JustWe take electricity for granted. It’s simply there, always available at the flip of a switch. Only the occasional power outage during a storm event reminds us how dependent our lives have become on electricity, and how hamstrung we are without it.
Gail the Actuary in an article at The Oil Drum warns that the electrical situation is not much better than the oil situation and that the likelihood of widespread electrical outages in next five to ten years is uncomfortably high.
The reasons? Tom mention a few: Short supplies of natural gas. Shrinking supplies of nuclear fuel, along with increasing risks of nuclear plant outages. Deregulation, which has impacted both generation and transmission capacity.