David Rodeback's Blog

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Now That's Growth

You might say it's a lot of hair dryers.

A December 21, 2006, memo from the Pleasant Grove Ranger District (of the US Forest Service, of the US Department of Agriculture, if you're keeping track) seeks comment on a proposed new electrical transmission line. Here's the interesting part:

Rocky Mountain Power has projected that collectively the cities of American Fork, Cedar Hills, Highland, and Pleasant Grove will increase their electrical use from 94 megawatts in 2003 to 175 megawatts in 2007.

Let's do some math.

That's an 86 percent increase in electricity usage in four years.

175 megawatts is more than 2.9 million 60-watt light bulbs, all burning simultaneously. Or, if you prefer a different unit of measure, it's more than 93,300 people all drying their hair simultaneously with 1875-watt hair dryers set on "high." Or it's all of the Holdman family's Christmas lights turned on at once . . . and 11,665 more houses with identical displays.

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