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[Updated] Xinjiang riot leaves scores dead
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Parts of Shanghai are experiencing blackouts today because sizzling temperatures have led to an exploding electricity demand and the city's power grid is, quite simply, unable to cope with everyone reaching for the a/c. A local power official tells Shanghai Daily that the city's power grid is fully loaded, all backup power generation systems are in use and blackouts may have to be introduced to help the city cope. This summer, the State Grid Corporation of China is already predicting a shortfall of up to 10 million kilowatts with an extended season of hot weather and rising coal costs. Blackout party, anyone?
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Taikang Lu has overgentrified itself into the blackout category. Too many latte stalls have brought down the neighborhood's power grid and most of the stores have been closed. There's an emergency notice taped up to their doors explaining the power demand has affected the life of the residents and the stores will be closed until the power company can get things sorted out.
Huh. Maybe all those residents could just cool off with ice cream from one of the five ice cream stores that now live in the lanes...
Taikang Lu is a disaster for the residents. My thoughts are with them. Only if the government does something about it.
My best friend, who is in Shanghai, just commented to me that it is "damn hot" and "we feel like we are fishes on a hot pan". That can't be good.
my home experienced blackout on sunday, the entire daytime. it is planned, with notice 2 days in advance. it happened before, nearly every year summer, a couple of times. but the different is: before, it was only a cut-off for a couple of hours, not during the weekend. this year, it is weekend and the whole day.
Hope government can make good planning on what kind of business should be limited due to their high energy consumption.
The same problem in summer arises in the wintertime. Bad isolation.
The energy shanghai wastes in summer vor cooling is also wasted in winter for heating.
I hope future buildings benefit from better isolation technology. That would be much better for the energy hunger of the building as it would be for the air quality in the room. A/C sucks! ;)
It's worth noting that power outages in China, almost without exception, are controlled: If the grid sees demand spikes that it knows it can't deliver, it will shut down areas rather than allowing insufficient capacity to manifest itself as brownouts. This is actually a good thing in that it keeps the system fairly stable.
This story has more on how power works in China (or doesn't).
I think you mean bad INSULATION. I would say in general that Chinese people are close with their neighbors and not isolated.
I just hope they don't turn off all the cool multi-colored flashing lights and multistory video screens on the skyscrapers, not to mention the lights under the flyovers.
But seriously--the amount of air conditioning that flows out open doors and through single-pane glass in this city is shocking. And yeah, the total lack of insulation is a huge problem.
Short-sighted planning and immediate gratification are gonna boomerang big-time on this city, this country and the rest of the world.
China will just build a lot of new coal-fired power plants....
Two words: Global f*cking warming.
Get used to this kind of stuff, folks. It can get a lot worse.
I just hope this blackouts in Shnaghai will not be as serious as NYC years ago.
One bad blackout is bad, but regular blackouts over a season are worse.
Well put, Andrew Galbraith.
Can someone explain to me why Taikang Lu has been disastrous for the residents nearby?