The epidemic of power outages and “rolling blackouts” which nearly shut down California in the early 2000s may be returning. Back then, the culprits were unscrupulous energy providers like Enron and a poorly-thought out process of deregulation. Now it may be “green” energy that is going to cause the problem.
At a special meeting of California energy companies and regulators held Feb. 26, Todd Strauss of Pacific Gas & Electric saw the possibility of state power blackouts emerging in 2013 to 2015. The reason is that it has suddenly dawned on state power regulators that green power has resulted in a precarious lack of system flexibility in the state’s power grid. Electricity systems need some surplus, so they can cover unexpected generator outages or transmission-line failures. The surplus generating capacity doesn’t guarantee steady power flow. Even though California has a lot of plants, it doesn’t have the right mix: Many of the solar and wind sources added in recent years have actually made the system more fragile, because they provide power intermittently.
Southern California Edison, the majority owner of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, decided last week to retire the troubled plant, citing mounting costs and uncertainty about when and if federal regulators would clear the way for the plant to restart. With San Onofre offline, San Diego may very well face rolling brownouts again when there is not enough electricity to cover the grid.
Are You Ready for Summer Rolling Blackouts?
So, are you prepared for when the power goes out?
Do all of your critical systems, servers, network equipment have battery backups?
Do all of your battery backups have sufficient capacity to hold the servers up for at least 15 minutes?
Do all of your battery backups have the ability to shut the servers down properly in the event the power is off for more than 15 minutes?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, give us a call at 619-717-8070 and we can let you know.