Recent power shortages in California's high-tech Silicon Valley offer a reminder of a truth that's both obvious and surprising: electricity runs the information age.
Which raises an even larger point: electricity is incredibly useful and getting more so all the time.
In the last 30 years, electricity has nearly doubled as a share of our total energy use. While use of other fuels like petroleum and natural gas has declined slightly as a share of total energy, electricity has steadily increased. In 1969, electricity supplied 6.8 percent of the energy used in the U.S., and in 1999, it provided 11.5 percent.
The U.S. Department of Energy notes that over the last 50 years, while the population of the country increased 83 percent, electricity use rose 1,180 percent.
You don't have to think very hard to figure out some of the reasons for electricity's popularity. Home heating and cooling provided a huge change over the past five decades. Televisions and refrigerators are standard in most any home. In 1978, only 8 percent of homes had a microwave oven, but by 1997, they could be found in 83 percent. In 1990, 16 percent of households had at least one computer. By 1997, that share doubled to more than 35 percent.
Electricity is incredibly useful and with the ways things are going, it's bound to get even more important. The Blevins Valley substation, located in Bath County, reached completion after being energized on January 17. This is one of the many ways that we are increasing reliability of our product and meeting projected load growth in the communities we serve. We will continue to research ways to serve you better and find new ways to put electricity to work.
Kentucky Association of
Electric Cooperatives, Inc.
4515 Bishop Lane * Louisville, KY 40218
502-451-2430 * FAX: 502-459-3209 Terms of Use
