[Peakoil] Peak oil and climate change

[Keith Thomas]

The confluence of peak oil and climate change - a teensy peek into the 
future from today's New York Times.
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Keith Thomas
www.evfit.com
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  Generators Generate Love and Hate in Queens
By MICHELLE O’DONNELL

Published: August 2, 2006


At first, no one in the brick apartment buildings on 51st Street in 
Woodside, Queens, complained about the giant white trailer that 
appeared at the curb.

About the size of a cargo container, the trailer, which houses an 
800-kilowatt generator, and a service truck gobbled up about seven 
parking spaces, on a street where spaces are as prized as truffles.

“Five days I have no air-conditioner, no elevator,” said Consuelo Boza, 
one of the generator’s champions, as she and her houseguests from Spain 
navigated a narrow passage to a car that was double-parked on the 
street. “But they put this here and I have everything.”

But there was also no parking, Ms. Boza was told.

“Yeah, but I don’t care,” she said.

Across parts of western Queens, noisy, diesel-fuel-guzzling generators 
have become a common sight, continuing to supply power to thousands of 
Consolidated Edison customers.

  Although the blackout officially ended last week, the utility company 
is still using 19 generators at some sites in Long Island City, 
Sunnyside, Woodside and Astoria where it is still repairing damaged 
feeder cables. It is using another 19 generators to supply power to 
densely populated buildings in an effort to reduce the pressure on an 
already overtaxed grid, according to Alfonso Quiroz, a spokesman for 
the utility.

And some private businesses, wary of new electric failures as 
temperatures soar, have opted to power their buildings with their own 
generators.

One result is a cross between urban crisis and open-air movie set, as 
yellow police tape cordons off swaths of curbs and the generator 
technicians sit back as if in director’s chairs, taking in the scenery. 
The industrial street furniture is simply part of post-blackout life in 
Queens, and most residents of 51st Street — like Ms. Boza, now able to 
enjoy electricity — have taken it in stride.

But when one of the technicians for the company supplying the 
generators, H. O. Penn, asked a resident what kind of Christmas 
ornaments would be appropriate for a generator, there was an outcry 
that quickly spread. (The technician, who would not give his name, said 
it was only a joke.)

It turned out that the generators, as wonderful as they were for 
supplying power, were a bit like houseguests — not very welcome over 
the long haul.

Part of the problem, residents say, has been the days of breathing 
diesel fumes.

Rosemarie McHugh, a retiree, said the fumes from the diesel fuel were 
rising up to her fifth-floor windows and left her feeling sick.

“I just don’t understand why Con Ed doesn’t have this resolved by now,” 
she said yesterday as she folded laundry.

Eric Kessel, 34, a packaging designer who lives in the same building, 
said he and his wife could see the fumes rising near their fourth-floor 
apartment. “When I wake up in the morning, it stinks,” he said. “It 
just hangs there.”

Mr. Quiroz said the fuel the utility was using had a low sulfur 
content, 0.05 percent. The sulfur content determines how dirty the 
emissions will be. And it is no small amount of fuel that the 
generators burn. An 800-kilowatt generator like the one on 51st Street 
can hold 550 gallons of fuel, and needs to be refilled every 10 hours, 
said Chris Olert, another Con Edison spokesman.

Several calls yesterday to H. O. Penn in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., seeking 
additional information about its generators were not returned.

The generators are not cheap. For small generators, 200-kilowatt and 
400-kilowatt machines, the utility pays about $2,300 to $4,500 a week 
in rental fees, Mr. Quiroz said. He did not know how much the utility 
paid to rent the larger machines. Diesel fuel can run into thousands of 
dollars per generator each 24 hours.

For keeping customers supplied with power, however, the generators have 
been worth the expense, though it is not one that the company might be 
finished with soon.

  “I don’t think we have a clear sense of how long the generators are 
going to be there,” Mr. Quiroz said.
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