Energy Security

I'm sure this will not be the only post generated today by Toronto's black out, but here's my two cents.

It has been noted in the Peak Oil community quite a bit that the coming scarcity of Fossil Fuels is going to cause uncertainty in power generation. For those who aren't aware, the majority of power in Ontario is produced by burning fossil fuels - so our grid is at the mercy of carbon availability. Much has been made also, of the aging grid and how much energy in terms of fossil fuels will be required in order to maintain it moving forward.
To wit:
A very rusted looking - and somewhat awkwardly located Hydro Tower href="
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And what looks like an
View Larger Map">entire substation that looks about ready to crumble into rust.

I've been saying for years that if we were to get a day (week!) as hot as today, with the economy running on all cylinders, that brownouts would be inevitable. I expected, however, for them to come from lack of capacity, not from apparent breakdowns in the system. That's the funny thing about black swans, though, isn't it?

In the meantime, here are some lovely suggestions for staying cool without AC.

All of this is to say that we are going to have to get used to using less power - not replacing our current power supply with something 'more sustainable.' Part of me applauds Dalton McGuinty's efforts to wean us off fossil fules, the obvious question is - "If the grid can't handle the sunny day requirements of Ontario now - how is it going to handle 1000's of extra cars being plugged into the grid daily. It's not about 'replacing' - it's about reducing. And moving to a lifestyle that just makes do with less...an out of context problem, maybe, for those who continue to confuse 'standard of living' with quality of life.

Perhaps 250,000 people in the dark on the hottest day of the year will be a wake up call.
Here's hoping.