Just a Blip
Brushing your teeth will be the least of tech’s worries as California’s power grid operator declared a stage 3 energy emergency alert.
Rotating power outage warnings were “highly likely” as a bone-crushing heat wave descended on the Golden State and the American West stressing the electricity grid to the extreme limit.
I’ve never tried brushing my teeth in the dark, but I imagine it’s not easy.
Toothpaste dripping all over my pajamas is not what I imagine when I think about living the California dream.
Luckily, I installed my luxury solar panel system on my roof that fully charges my 2 Teslas in the garage for free.
Tough obstacles call for smart solutions.
For others, DEFCON 5 is front and center.
California Independent System Operator (ISO) tweeted to customers advising them to “please reduce your energy use.”
Some 67,000 Californians were without power Monday evening.
Tech CEOs are taking notice as Silicon Valley, although blemished from its golden and most lucrative years, is still a massive hub of tech entrepreneurship, innovation, and investment.
There are about half a million tech jobs in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, and it doesn’t take a genius to understand they need the light on to work.
Talking to tech CEOs, they are perplexed.
Various CFOs and CTOs are having private conversations about buying backup power generators to kick in if power fails at the office.
There are also newer conversations about investing in office space outside the San Francisco tech region, and naturally, those locations gravitate towards cooler regions with better access to water sources.
Tech CEOs that now mandate 100% remote work can sit back and relax knowing that even if a few get taken out, most of the staff will be online from somewhere somehow and someway.
The staff at Mad Hedge Fund Trader are employed over 13 different time zones around the world and boast a similar setup to mine, which are roof solar panels powering a fleet of Teslas. Throw in a satellite signal for broadband internet.
I don’t believe energy prices will factor into the tech earnings this upcoming quarter as electricity prices in California soared to their highest since California's electric grid operator imposed rotating outages in August 2020.
The last time the ISO ordered utilities to shed power was for two days in August 2020 when outages affecting about 800,000 homes and businesses lasted anywhere from 15 minutes to about two-1/2 hours.
At worst, there might be a mini footnote writing down a small sum for electricity bills. Remember that these behemoths earn billions upon billions of annual revenues.
At the individual level, however, convincing the incremental tech worker to move to Silicon Valley has been tough, this just made it infinitely harder.
In the bigger scheme of things, naturally, this is just a blip in the process of going green and for tech taking a larger part of the economic opportunities.
By 2035, the State of California will ban the new sale of gas-powered vehicles giving way to a beautiful renaissance of EVs helmed by the CEO of Tesla Elon Musk.
It’s likely that half of California residents will be driving a Tesla by 2035 and these energy breakages only speed up the process of adoption.
These same tech CFOs are already talking about outfitting their offices with an array of the best solar panels that money can buy as well as recommending that employees choose a more efficient fuel-consuming automobile to drive.
Adapt or stagnate.