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Sustainable Urban Power
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Cities require electricity to power their lights, computers, telephones, elevators, mass transit, heating, and cooling. Since urban electricity cannot be stored (in batteries), the amount arriving and amount used must always be equalized or "power quality" mishaps occur. In addition, cities must have a reserve to generate for peak demands such as early morning or extremely hot days. Almost all cities are interconnected through regional power grids, so "sustainable management" includes regional coordination to prevent brownouts and blackouts. Cities have an increasing and enormous role to play in sustainable energy policies because they can require a certain percentage of renewable energy in electricity contracts, require energy-efficient buildings, set rates that encourage conservation, purchase power from nearby sources (reducing transmission losses), install metering devices, and allow decentralized production by encouraging cogeneration facilities.
Keywords electricity, power infrastructure, electricity consumption, electricity conservation, power plants, cogeneration, decentralized power generation, distributed power, power grid, peak demand, power quality, brownouts, blackouts, alternative energy sources, green energy, power distribution, wholesale power purchasers, high-voltage transmission lines |
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