"Aside from grade school images of Benjamin Franklin maniacally flying his kite during a lightning storm, most of us don't really picture electricity in any tangible way at all. Interestingly enough, the blackout of 2003, while frightening to many and inconvenient to even more, did to some degree change all that. It forced New Yorkers to think outside our five-borough bubble and realize that electricity is not some ambiguous force that automatically powers computers, charges cell phones, and keeps food cold."
--Ben Jervey, The Big Green Apple: Your Guide to Eco-Friendly Living in New York City

Besides being a social celebration of community, Blackout NYC is dedicated to increasing New Yorkers' awareness of energy--from our city's fragile electric grid to the environmental impact of NYC's energy use.

In these sweltering months of summer, NYC's electric grid bears a mighty burden, and New Yorkers are going to have to start getting used to more regular brown- and blackouts. BUT THIS CAN BE PREVENTED. With a combination of actions--some personal, some policy--we can effectively reduce NYC's energy demands and ensure ceaseless power for the people.

The partnering organizers of Blackout NYC are hereby offering a 3-prong solution to the city's annual summer energy burden. (click on lightbulbs to expand)

• Demand
  Solutions for a city-wide cutback on personal and business energy demands.
  
  A startling percentage of NYC's energy demand in summer months is sucked up in inefficient and unnecessary air conditioners. We're not prescribing a totally AC-free home (although if you can bear it, all the power to you), but rather suggesting that you use them wisely. Make sure you:
  
  • use an Energy Star certified unit. ACs with the Energy Star certification are up to ___% more efficient than older, non-certified models;
  • turn off the AC when you're not in the room. It is NOT more efficient--or even that much cooler--to keep it running all day.
  • use the right sized AC for the space. Check out the Energy Star site for proper sizing info.
  • find more tips at the Energy Star "Heating and Cooling" website
  In addition, residents and businesses in NYC can be paid to be part of the demand-reduction solution! EnerNoc and Comverge create networks of residents and Commercial/Industrial businesses that get paid to reduce their energy demand during peak periods. In short, the overall reduction of demand across their networks is sold back to the power company at market rate (as they would normally have to buy additional power from a polluting gas-fired peak power plant in order to avoid a blackout) and the subsequent revenue is then shared with the members of the networks... brilliant!!
  To learn more, please visit the following websites:
  
  • Residents -- we recommend Comverge
  • Commercial and Industrial -- we recommend EnerNOC
• Supply
  Spread the burden of cleaner energy supply using Distributed Generation.
  Most New Yorkers have no idea that, by mandate, a full 90-percent of the city's peak load demands must be generated within the five boroughs. Peak load demands are those highest periods of electricity use, generally in the afternoons of hot summer days (when everyone's running their ACs). What this means in practical terms is that nearly all of the juice flowing through the summer city's grid is born in those big, unsightly power plants that dot our waterfronts. To help reach these peak demands, we can either build more of those big power plants (which no community wants), or we could start to get serious about Distributed Generation. What is DG? Basically, it's the generation of electricity from a number of dispersed small power sources, rather than a few large ones. In practical terms for NYC, it could come in a couple of forms:
  
  • Heat and Power: By combining heat with power output, vast gains in electricity production can be achieved.
  • The Sun: Enough sunlight falls on NYC everyday to power the entire city. It's time to capture that energy with photovoltaic (PV) panels. Everyone's home could become a power plant!
  • Waste: By harnassing the naturally-released biogasses from waste and sewage treatment, the city could attain even more energy gains.
  
  What's best, is all three of these Distributed Generation ideas have already been proposed by a very important player--the city itself. Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC highlights DG as a sensible and practical way to meet NYC's energy demands. Learn more at the PlaNYC website, and be sure to check out #9!
• Connectivity
  How you can be an integral link in the chain of the energy revolution.
  In New York, electricity costs the consumer the same amount any time of day, regardless of demand on the system. Meanwhile, only residential buildings are able to sell electricity back to the grid (like that generated by PV panels on a roof), so there's not much incentive for businesses to install solar. By addressing these two issues of connectivity, New Yorkers would have great incentive to shift personal energy habits and to invest in distributed generation in the form of solar. Here's how:
  
  • Net metering: Currently, only residential customers are able to "sell back" excess electricity generated in or on their building to the utility. If "net metering" were expanded to cover all customers, many businesses would see great potential for reducing energy costs by installing their own solar arrays.
  • Real time pricing: If electricity cost more when demand was the highest (which is simple free market economics), customers would be more likely to conserve energy during these expensive peak periods. Rather than, say, putting a load in the dryer in the mid-afternoon when demand is soaring and electricity is most expensive, we'd rather wait until nighttime when demand is smaller and energy cheaper.
  • In combination: Now here's where things get really exciting...If your home produced more electricity than you were using during the day (when a) you're least likely to be home and using electricity and b) energy is the most pricey), with net metering and real time pricing, you'd be selling back electricity to the grid at a premium rate! Then at night, when your solar panels aren't producing any juice, you'd buy power from the utility for a much lower cost. In effect--you'd be making money off your solar panels!