from the U.S. Energy Information Administration , electricity consumption in 2020 was “14 times greater than electricity use in 1950.”And nothing sends electric use skyrocketing like a hot summer afternoon when air conditioning is most needed. Temperatures in Wildwood were in the mid-80s when the power went out over the weekend.
While Atlantic City Electric, utility provider for the island, has not yet released the cause of the substation fire, the combination of extreme weather, an aging power grid, and increased electrical demand is making blackouts more common. According to the EIA report, extreme weather events alone account for about seven out of ten outages per year in the U.S.
Increased demand overtaxes aging electric power grids and leads to blackouts, resulting in a long list of things that don’t work without electricity — air conditioners, traffic lights, elevators, credit card machines, gas pumps, refrigerators, ATMs, arcades, waterparks, medical equipment, hotel keycard readers, ice machines, and more.
“Luckily I had stopped to get ice cream money,” tourist Ashley DiTonno said sitting on a porch in Wildwood Friday night. The pizza place where her family was picking up dinner was cash-only due to the power outage.
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