Remember the blackout of 2003? The largest blackout in North American history? If you lived in North Eastern Canada/United States, you’ll likely remember those days in August where the entire area was in a blackout with no electricity. Affecting cities including Toronto, New York and many more, we had a transmission line problem originating in the United States that ended up affecting 50 million people and left Canadians and Amercans alike without electricity. Everything shut down.
Pitch black is how I remember it. The sky was clearer than I had ever seen it before and seemed even prettier than views from the cottage or even Algonquin Park. From satellite photos at night, it’s as if this entire area disappeared off the face of the earth. It was actually quite beautiful if you ask me, and I remember walking outside my front door looking up to the stars and I exclaimed, “Oh my. It’s so beautiful out here”. I blushed and smiled to myself as I realized many of my other neighbours were outside as well exclaiming the same thing even though none of us could see each other. It was that dark.
At the time, I was at home trying to keep my cool with my very young infant. I was happy the only thing he needed was me. The only thing I needed was food. I remember thinking about what it would mean for some other mothers who had switched to formula and would now have difficulty boiling water; I realized there is nothing like experiences like this to show us just what we take for granted.
When the power came back up, there was a serious call for everyone to conserve because not all power was back up on the grid and the weather was hot. There was a lot of concern about stablity and work at understanding what caused the problem and how to prevent it from happening again. I remember hearing the stability word a lot and there was concern that if we all tried to turn our A/C’s on again, then we’d be toast. (Pun intended.)
It was amazing to see all the businesses and consumers banding together to do everything they could to conserve and ensure we were not plumeted into the complete dark again because we realized quickly just how important energy was in everything that we did. It made us realize how basic electricity was a need for things as simple as ensuring we could feed ourselves.
Businesses kept their lights down low and at a minimum, all extraneous activities were stopped or dramatically slowed. Even though it was hot, we all tried our best not to use the air conditioner or use it sparingly and at a higher temperature than usual. I felt as though I’d been thrown into another time and world. It was fabulous.
It took some time, but it seemed business and consumers went back to their old ways. I grieved in a way, and wished that they would simply force us through some rolling brown-outs and/or blackouts to remind us every so often how important it is to conserve. Would instability in the electricity grid force you to conserve more in order to assure better stability/reliability? I think so. Would businesses do the same? I’d be willing to bet money they would.
It’ll be almost 5 years since the blackout of 2003. I think it’s time we remind ourselves again what stability and reliability is worth and what we can individually and collectively do to ensure we continue to be able to put food on the table.
- Daisy
