Rise and Fall of California's Electric Generation

California is the center of strong economicprimarily hydroelectric power from states in the
forces-Hollywood, Southern California aerospace,Pacific Northwest and coal- and natural gas-fired
California Central Valley, Silicon Valley, and Techproduction from the desert Southwest.
Coast. It has been also a conglomerate of trade,In the year 2000 and 2001, the state was
transportation, utilities; government; professional andconfronted by energy crisis due to a supply and
business services; education and health services; anddemand imbalance that led to electricity price
leisure and hospitality.instability and four major blackouts. The myriad of
As a global workforce, California needs power andfactors that result to this imbalance are the heavy
lighting services to supply all residential, commercialdependence on out-of-State electricity providers,
and industrial sectors. They have a state-of-the-artdrought conditions in the northwest that reduced
electric motor services and lighting control services tohydroelectric power generation, a rupture on a major
provide sufficient power and energy to all industries.natural gas pipeline supplying California power plants,
California is one of the largest hydroelectric powerstrong economic growth leading to increased
producers in the United States. Natural gas-firedelectricity demand in western States, an increase in
power plants typically account for more than one-halfunplanned power plant outages, and unusually high
of State electricity generation. Good climate andtemperatures that increased electricity demand for
enough rainfall in the city contributes to close toair-conditioning and other cooling uses.
one-fifth of State electricity generation. But, theThe aftermath of the energy crisis led the California
strict emission laws restrict the power plants andState government to mandate an Energy Action Plan
allowed only a few small coal-fired power plants todesigned to eliminate outages and excessive price
operate in California. The Mojave Desert is the bestspikes. The plans were meant to increasing the
solar power plants and supplier of solar energy in theenergy conservation, building sufficient new
United States.generation facilities, upgrading and expanding the
California's two nuclear power plants are the sourceelectricity transmission and distribution infrastructure,
for almost one-fifth of total generation. These are:and ensuring that generation facilities can quickly
Diablo Canyon Power Plant and San Onofre Nuclearcome online when needed.
Generating Station. These two power plantsSome of the solutions made was the development
operates California's home lighting services andof alternative energy efficient lighting alternatives.
automatic lighting services.The California Energy Commission paved the way to
The city leads the United States in electricityaddressing the energy scarcity by providing a cutting
generation from non hydroelectric renewable energyedge in the lighting systems for residential kitchens.
sources, such as wind, geothermal, solar energy, fuelWith respect to the energy law, the program seeks
wood, and municipal solid waste/landfill gas resources.to help homeowners to meet the tighter energy
They normally supplies the electric motor servicescodes.
"The Geysers," is the largest group of geothermalFor additional information, click this site on lightning
power plants in the world. It has more than 750control services.
megawatts of installed capacity. California's highBadeth Abonita is a web copywriter, associated with
demand of electricity caused the state to resort toa company offering automatic lighting services.
importing more electricity than any other state,