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Apr. 18th, 2006 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebIt's officially summer now, since the temperature got up to 100 degrees (38C) yesterday. This morning I read in the paper that this resulted in a "rolling blackout" (Half of Austin Energy's customers left in dark: Heat prompts blackouts to preserve electric grid, prevent total power outage).
The problem is that "April and May are months when many of the generators powering the grid are offline for planned maintenance," so that everything can be in tiptop shape by the time July and August roll around, so we weren't prepared for everyone and their dog to blast their air conditioning when they came home from work.
In order to prevent a real blackout, cities across the area on the energy grid basically turned off power for a short period to keep the system stable. "Clark said the blackouts affected nearly all areas of the city, except for the downtown grid and 10 to 15 circuits that power emergency services." Very odd. Living in a marginal part of town, I really thought we'd be targeted for this. But since there was an apartment complex where only half the complex was affected, I guess they only targeted checkerboard parts of each area.
What's odder is that I didn't even notice how hot it was yesterday. Normally I think I must be turning into some kind of wimp until I read that it actually was hot. On the other hand, I do feel chilled at 80 degrees (27C) if I'm not up and moving around, so I think that says something. I'm already acclimatized to the heat and it's still April. I noticed that New England is having high temperatures about the same as our low temperatures and lows proportionately lower. Not freezing though! That's good news to me.
The problem is that "April and May are months when many of the generators powering the grid are offline for planned maintenance," so that everything can be in tiptop shape by the time July and August roll around, so we weren't prepared for everyone and their dog to blast their air conditioning when they came home from work.
In order to prevent a real blackout, cities across the area on the energy grid basically turned off power for a short period to keep the system stable. "Clark said the blackouts affected nearly all areas of the city, except for the downtown grid and 10 to 15 circuits that power emergency services." Very odd. Living in a marginal part of town, I really thought we'd be targeted for this. But since there was an apartment complex where only half the complex was affected, I guess they only targeted checkerboard parts of each area.
What's odder is that I didn't even notice how hot it was yesterday. Normally I think I must be turning into some kind of wimp until I read that it actually was hot. On the other hand, I do feel chilled at 80 degrees (27C) if I'm not up and moving around, so I think that says something. I'm already acclimatized to the heat and it's still April. I noticed that New England is having high temperatures about the same as our low temperatures and lows proportionately lower. Not freezing though! That's good news to me.