Tag: infrastructure

Republican Bill To Allow Utility Companies To Ration Energy

Instead of demanding that utility companies spend up for reliable sources of energy, legislators try to balance the shortfall on the backs of consumers. Worse, this type of nonsense come Republican lawmakers. Public Utilities are monopolies under strict control of public boards and are supposed to provide energy to all consumers.

As I wrote in Technocracy’s Necessary Requirements, this was the plan for Technocracy as revealed in the Technocracy Study Course in 1934. Here are the first two requirements:

1. Register on a continuous 24-hour-per-day basis the total net conversion of energy

Conversion of energy means creating useable energy from stored energy like coal, oil or natural gas; when they are burned, electricity is generated. Hydroelectric and nuclear also convert energy. There were two reasons to keep track of useable energy: First, it was the basis for issuing “energy script” to all citizens for buying and selling goods and services. Second, it predicted economic activity because all such activity is directly dependent upon energy. (Note that Technocrats intended to pre-determine how much energy would be made available in the first place.)

2. By means of the registration of energy converted and consumed, make possible a balanced load

Once available energy was quantified, it was to be allocated to consumers and manufacturers so as to limit production and consumption. Technocrats would have control of both ends, so that everything is managed according to their scientific formulas.

The modern Smart Grid, with its ubiquitous WiFi-enabled Smart Meters on homes and businesses, is the exact fulfillment of these two requirements. The concept of “energy web” was first revitalized in 1999 by the Bonneville Power Authority (BPA) in Portland, Oregon. A government agency, BPA had a rich history of Technocrats dating back to its creation in 1937. The “energy web” was renamed Smart Grid in 2009 during the Obama Administration. Note that Smart Grid was a global initiative that intended to blanket the entire world with this new energy control technology. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.

Proposed legislation would allow utility companies to temporarily limit the amount of customers’ energy usage during peak demand times.

Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, R-Haviland, introduced House Bill 427 late last month. The measure, which has not yet been assigned to a committee, creates a “voluntary demand response program.”

Under the program, customers could opt to allow utilities to “temporarily adjust energy usage” during periods of high demand. Actions could include “raising thermostat settings or cycling water heaters.”

As proposed, customers could override any changes, and utilities could compensate customers either annually or per event. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio would review the programs to ensure they are cost-effective for customers.

“This legislation is a crucial step in our state’s comprehensive plan to ensure all Ohioans have access to reliable, affordable, and readily available energy,” Klopfenstein said in a release.

“Demand response programs have proven to be a vital tool for our large commercial users, and it’s important that similar programs are made available to residential and small commercial users,” Klopfenstein added. “These programs will ease the strain on our energy grid and save money for all Ohioans.”

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B.C. Supreme Court approves Indigenous ownership of Haida Gwaii

The B.C. Supreme Court has officially recognized the Haida Nation’s aboriginal title to the Haida Gwaii islands, excluding public infrastructure and private land, reported the Epoch Times. This decision affirmed an April 2024 agreement between the Haida Nation, B.C., and Canada.

On April 14, 2024, the Haida Nation and B.C. signed the “Rising Tide” Haida Title Lands Agreement, supported by a 95% vote from Haida Gwaii residents on April 6.

The agreement was unanimously backed by all present in the B.C. legislature on April 29, received royal assent on May 16, and was supported by the federal government.

“Today Haida ancestors are dancing in celebration that the discrimination they endured in our colonial past is now behind us,” Haida Nation wrote in celebration.

“… the governments of the Haida Nation, Canada and British Columbia are forging a new path where we can foster the jurisdictional space for Haida laws to grow and deepen, without conflict, and based on respect.” 

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Cuba’s Power Grid Collapses for the Fifth Time in a Year

Cuba’s barely functional power grid completely collapsed for the fifth time in less than a year on Wednesday, leaving the entire country without power throughout the day.

According to Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, the power grid has not been fully restored as of Thursday morning, as five provinces remain without power. In contrast, the Spanish news Agency EFE reported on Thursday that much more of Cuba is still without power.

The blackout started on Wednesday at 09:14 a.m. (local time) after the Antonio Guiteras thermal power plant in the province of Matanzas suddenly went offline. The independent outlet Cibercuba pointed out that the plant is the same one that caused prior mass blackouts in the country. Iván Hernández, general secretary of the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba, further explained to Infobae that the thermal power plant is Cuba’s biggest.

“You can imagine the heat, food going bad, young children, the elderly, and bedridden people going through this… The discomfort is immense. People have nothing to eat and now even less to cook with, because most Cuban families prepare food using electrical appliances,” Hernández told Infobae.

Wednesday’s still unresolved nationwide blackout marks the fifth time in less than a year that Cuba’s derelict power grid has completely collapsed, and comes days after another massive power grid failure left Eastern Cuba without power over the weekend. Cuban figurehead “president” Miguel Díaz-Canel — who returned to the country this week following a tour of Vietnam, China, and Laos — said on a Thursday morning social media post that the power grid is generating “more than 1,000 MW” of power and that “most provinces are already connected.”

According to Granma, the Castro regime deployed a series of “microsystems” to provide power to crucial infrastructure such as hospitals and aqueducts as a temporary workaround to the non-functional power grid. Cibercuba reported on Thursday noon that one such system deployed in the Province of Granma collapsed twice. The ongoing nationwide blackout also forced hospitals to suspend surgeries and other medical procedures.

The independent outlet 14 y Medio reported that Cubans had to come up with “emergency solutions” to provide some form of comfort to children amid the blackout. One unidentified Cuban citizen explained that he had to “use my electric tricycle to charge the child’s fans.” Other citizens, the outlet detailed, have resorted to homemade wind turbines while one unidentified citizen said that wind turbines have become a “competitive” alternative to solar panels.

Cuba has a barely functional power grid after the communist Castro regime pushed it to the brink of complete ruin with decades of mismanagement and lack of due maintenance. As a result, the derelict power plants still working in the country are unable to generate enough electricity to power all of Cuba at once, forcing Cubans to endure daily blackouts.

The already years-long dramatic situation drastically worsened in October 2024, when the power grid experienced the first of so far five complete collapses that left Cuba without power for almost a week. Although the Castro regime managed to bring the power grid back online, it continued to function at an even more diminished capacity, leading to further collapses in the following months that continued throughout 2025.

The ruling communists, short of resolving the power crisis, have instead urged citizens to enact desperate “power saving” measures such as temporarily suspending all education and work activities in mid-February and requesting people bring their own power generators to banks and other state offices to provide them the requested services.

The subject of Cuba’s electricity collapse is one of the main issues on which the regime has sought increased assistance from China — which, throughout 2025, has become Cuba’s main benefactor, replacing Russia.

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The Developing World’s Alleged Solar Boom: Survival Amid Government Dysfunction, Not a Model for the Rest of Us

Mainstream media and green agenda advocates celebrate the spread of solar in developing countries as proof that fossil fuels can and should be abandoned, presenting it as both an environmental necessity and a path to prosperity. British officials urge investment in a “solar revolution across Africa,” citing projects that combine solar with mobile technology, while the World Economic Forum praises Pakistan’s “solar boom” as a lesson for others.

The reality is less glamorous. Roughly 1.3 billion people worldwide lack access to grid electricity. In countries where corrupt or dysfunctional governments cannot deliver reliable power, people turn to solar out of necessity, not climate concern. Off-grid solar is a survival tool, not a lifestyle choice.

What most households can afford is minimal: a small panel that, after charging all day, might power a single light bulb for a few hours at night or charge a phone. These systems cannot handle laptops, refrigerators, washing machines, or other appliances that define modern life in the West. They also fail with larger energy demands such as machinery, agricultural equipment, or water pumps, necessary machines for survival in these regions. As a result, people still rely on generators and fossil fuels to operate this type of machinery.

At night, a house may have only one bulb lit, giving off very limited light. As a result, families still rely on flashlights, candles, or kerosene lanterns to move around, forcing them to buy flashlights and batteries, lanterns and fuel, or else purchase additional solar panels just to recharge their flashlights during the day.

The so-called solar boom is not a green revolution. It is a desperate response to government failure, a stopgap solution that provides the bare minimum rather than a path to prosperity.

On paper, the solar numbers in the developing world look impressive. Developing countries now account for more than half of global solar capacity, compared with less than 10 percent a decade ago. In 2017, they even surpassed industrialized nations in renewable energy production, largely due to solar.

Across Africa, more than 1.5 million households now rely on solar home systems, a nearly 300 percent increase since 2015, supported by mobile-money financing. Kenya leads in installations per capita, with some 30,000 small panels sold annually. Bangladesh has rolled out over 5.2 million systems, bringing electricity to nearly 12 percent of its 160 million people. India added a record 9,255 megawatts of solar capacity in 2017, with another 9,600 megawatts under development.

While these numbers may look impressive, scaling solar to sustain modern living standards would be unimaginably expensive, requiring vast resources, land, and infrastructure. Worse, such a build-out could cause more environmental damage than the continued, use of fossil fuels.

The power requirements of modern appliances far exceed what small off-grid systems can deliver: hair dryers need 1,200–1,800 watts, central air conditioners 3,000–3,500 watts per hour, and one ton of cooling capacity requires about 1,200 watts of solar panels. To run a central AC unit efficiently would take around 3 kilowatts of output, roughly thirty 100-watt panels. Meanwhile, the average American home consumed 10,791 kWh of electricity in 2022, demanding about 25–30 panels per house.

In dense suburban neighborhoods, there simply isn’t enough roof space, while ground installations would consume vast tracts of land. Building solar farms on this scale would devastate the environment, casting shadows that kill crops and vegetation, requiring tree removal, and converting natural habitats into industrial solar sites.

Cities in northern latitudes or regions with heavy cloud cover would still face major energy shortfalls. On top of this, manufacturing, installing, maintaining, and replacing billions of panels would create more pollution than fossil-fuel generation ever did.

As an example of scalability, consider the land and infrastructure required. To power New York City with solar would take a system of about 40 gigawatts, covering roughly 200,000 acres, or 312 square miles, an area equal to five Districts of Columbia or 50,000 Walmart stores.

Other estimates put the requirement at 420 square kilometers (103,800 acres) just to meet the city’s 10.5 gigawatt demand. At the national level, powering the entire United States would require between 13.6 million and 22,000 square miles of solar farms, about half the size of Pennsylvania, or the size of Lake Michigan.

But solar panels alone are not enough. A zero-carbon grid with 94 percent renewables by 2050 would require 930 gigawatts of energy storage and 6 terawatt-hours of battery capacity. For context, the average U.S. household uses about 30 kWh per day, while a Tesla Powerwall stores only 14 kWh. Scaling battery storage to national demand would exceed current global production by orders of magnitude.

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Scheming politicians made utilities their energy bagmen— and we’re all paying the price

Electric utility bills have exploded in New York: As of May, the average monthly residential rate had jumped 13% over the previous year, and a whopping 54% since May 2019.

Headline-hungry politicians have found the culprit: the utility companies.

Press releases excoriate greedy executives and their heartless shareholders: Why, these rascals even installed special machines in our homes to decide how much to charge us!

It turns out, though, that Albany pols aren’t just using the utilities as a fall guy for their political theater.

They’ve also pressed them into service as state government’s bagmen, collecting for various climate programs that we’d otherwise recognize as tax hikes. 

The black cables go back to the electric company, but the trail of green leads straight to the state Capitol.

Decades ago, monthly electricity bills were based on your usage and two added factors.

The first was supply cost: Electricity is a commodity sold on a competitive wholesale market, where its price fluctuates based on supply and demand.

About half of New York’s electricity is generated with natural gas, so fluctuations in gas prices translate into electricity-price changes.

The second factor is the utility company’s charge for delivering that electricity.

These rates are tightly regulated by the state Public Service Commission, which requires gas, electric and water companies to account for literally every dollar they collect from ratepayers, and every dollar they spend.

The PSC then sets the profit they’re allowed to keep, decided by a formula.

But, as state officials discovered in the 1990s, that utility-bill system is a fabulous way to tax electricity customers without taking the blame.

Utility companies had no choice but to play along.

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How Much Energy Does ChatGPT’s Newest Model Consume?

  • The energy consumption of the newest version of ChatGPT is significantly higher than previous models, with estimates suggesting it could be up to 20 times more energy-intensive than the first version.
  • There is a severe lack of transparency regarding the energy use and environmental impact of AI models, as there are no mandates forcing AI companies to disclose this information.
  • The increasing energy demands of AI are contributing to rising electricity costs for consumers and raising concerns about the broader environmental impact of the tech industry.

How much energy does the newest version of ChatGPT consume? No one knows for sure, but one thing is certain – it’s a whole lot. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, hasn’t released any official figures for the large language model’s energy footprints, but academics are working to quantify the energy use for query – and it’s considerably higher than for previous models. 

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Texas Is Preparing To Cut Off Power To Data Centers During Grid Emergencies

Over the Fourth of July, deadly floods swept across central Texas, disrupting infrastructure and causing widespread outages. Meanwhile, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has already seen multiple price spikes and conservation alerts — not because there wasn’t enough power, but because we couldn’t move it where it was needed.

These aren’t isolated events. It’s not just a Texas problem.

Just days after the shutoff planning was announced, the U.S. Department of Energy warned that blackout risks across the country could rise 100-fold by 2030.

All of this points to a deeper vulnerability: We’re still running the grid with tools and assumptions built for a different era — one with fewer storms, slower load growth and no massive data centers. 

Texas’s new normal demands smarter, faster and more adaptive grid operations. Long-term infrastructure investments are critical, but they won’t arrive in time to manage the next three summers.

Texas has made real progress in building new generation capacity, especially in solar, storage and wind. But the wires that carry that power haven’t changed. More importantly, the way we operate the grid hasn’t evolved to match the demands of either changing weather patterns or electrical load growth.

Now, surging demand from industrial expansion, electrification and AI data centers is doubling the strain. ERCOT’s own projections show that power demand in Texas may nearly double by 2030. And, other regions aren’t immune.

  • The Midcontinent Independent System Operator recently green-lit a $22 billion transmission buildout to relieve rising congestion.
  • The California Independent System Operator saw renewable curtailments surge nearly 30% last year.
  • The PJM Interconnection anticipates 3% to 4% annual peak load growth through 2035 driven by data centers and expects up to 70 GW of demand over the next 15 years.
  • Nationally, U.S. demand is projected to climb about 16% in five years — a pace not seen since the 1980s. 

That means more stress on an already-congested transmission system — one still being managed with decades-old assumptions about heat, wind and demand.

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Maryland’s energy price explosion

In July, my electric bill crossed a number I never thought I’d see: over $500. Yes, it was a brutally hot month, but we’ve had very hot summers before in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. We’ve run the air conditioning nonstop before and never reached even $400.

What’s going on?

A few things. Let’s start with this week’s announcement by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore of a $2 million “Residential and Commercial Energy Storage Program.” The idea is to offer rebates to homeowners and businesses that install battery systems, which can store energy and reduce strain on the grid. Moore says, “When we invest in clean energy, we help expand supply.”

That all sounds nice. But here’s the problem: Every “investment” like this costs money, our money, and it hasn’t lowered a single bill so far. In fact, it’s done the opposite. Almost laughable is another planned “solution” to the energy crisis: Maryland utility customers will receive a rebate on their bills next month, estimated at about $40 per household, depending on electricity usage. A second rebate is planned for January. 

On June 1, utility rates across Maryland jumped. Baltimore Gas & Electric, Pepco, Delmarva Power — pick your provider, the story’s the same. We were told it’s because of supply problems and the need for infrastructure upgrades. The reality? The state continues to remove reliable, always-on energy sources and replace them with more expensive alternatives that can’t carry the load on their own. We’re importing more energy from other states at higher rates and paying for that gap via higher bills.

The jump we saw in our bills this summer isn’t a one-time bump. Maryland is part of a regional power grid called PJM. Recently, the price PJM charges to ensure there’s enough power cleared at the maximum allowed rate. Translation: In 2026, we’ll see another increase, 1.5% to 5% higher on top of what we’re already paying now. And that’s just the short term. With the growing demand from massive data centers sucking up power, Reuters reports bills in our region could climb 30% to 60% by 2030.

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WoodMac Sounds Alarm On Transformer Shortage Amid AI Data Center Boom

The AI data center boom could soon face some serious headwinds, and the problem isn’t a shortage of Nvidia GPUs, but America’s fragile power grid.

A combination of disastrous green policies and soaring data center power demand has already sparked a power bill crisis across the Mid-Atlantic states, while a nationwide grid-tightening crisis unfolds. This has triggered a growing wave of discontent among residents in Maryland and New Jersey, who are angered by Democrats’ prioritization of green policies that have retired stable fossil fuel power generation in favor of unreliable solar and wind, resulting in power bill inflation like never seen before.

Making matters worse, AI data centers are counting on an upgraded grid to handle new base loads of power. This massive, multi-layered supply chain needed to upgrade the grid spans raw materials, transmission lines, circuit breakers, cables, control systems, and power generation systems.

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U.S. AI boom is completely upending the electricity market — small businesses and households could foot the bill as industry watchers warn of sharp price increases

A new report into the seismic demands of AI data centers on the power grid claims that electricity rates for individuals and small businesses could increase vastly in the face of data center expansion from the likes of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. The New York Times reports that AI data centers could see their demand on the country’s electricity could increase to as much as 12% by 2028, up from just 4% a couple of years ago. Furthermore, high-tech giants are building their own power plants, becoming consumers and producers of electricity in a way that is fundamentally reshaping the U.S. electricity market. According to the report, small businesses and households could see their bills go up disproportionately as a result.

AI data centers need more power and power grid investments

According to the report, in 2023, data centers run by such companies as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft accounted for 4% of the nation’s electricity use, and federal projections indicate that share could climb to 12% by 2028. Since AI processing is far more energy-intensive than streaming or standard cloud workloads, Amazon’s chief executive, Andy Jassy, has openly said that power availability is the main bottleneck limiting new data center capacity.

Significant power demand not only creates unprecedented strain on the grid but is even forcing high-tech giants to generate their own power. For now, they use various renewable energy sources, gas turbines, or diesel generators, but going forward, some even plan to run their own nuclear power plants. Already, some sell surplus energy on the wholesale market. Over the past decade, these sales have totaled $2.7 billion, with most revenue generated since 2022. In some regions, their operations match or surpass the scale of established utilities, allowing them to influence both supply and pricing.

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