Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
6
“WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN”
It's June 8, 2011, a scorching hot day in Midland, Texas.
1
In an aver-
age year, the mercury would max out at 93 degrees Fahrenheit, but by
noon that reading is in the dust. By three o'clock, the previous record
of 102 degrees, set in 1962, has been broken, and by late at ernoon the
temperature hits 105 degrees.
2
It is the second day of what will turn out
to be a record two-week-long streak of hundred-plus-degree heat.
3
h is sort of oppressive heat comes with predictable consequences.
Sweltering residents take refuge indoors and crank up their air condi-
tioning to full blast, sending demand for power soaring. On cue, elec-
tricity prices skyrocket. Indeed, three weeks later, faced with similar
heat, wholesale electricity will be selling in West Texas at almost a hun-
dred times the typical rate.
4
h is June day, though, plays out dif erently. h e hot weather has its
usual impact, and electricity consumption begins its typical rise. Starting
around noon, prices begin to pick up, and by the time families sit down
for dinner, it costs nearly ten times as much to buy electricity as it did
at lunchtime. But then the pat ern reverses. Prices begin to crash. By the
time people have set led in for prime-time TV, prices briel y dip below
zero. Despite a surge in demand for electricity, generators are actually
paying companies to take their power.
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