Cities looking to local independent power generation for preparedness | 04.23.2007 | 07:21:01 | Views: 5771 | ID: April 23 '07: With the summer months coming, many local towns in the U.S. are worried that high summer temperatures will equate to continued power outages seen last year in Missouri, New York and California. The Associated Press reported that many towns are looking to renewable and local energy production as a way to reduce dependence on a national grid increasingly seen as overworked and unreliable. According to the AP, many mayors "are considering creating new micro grid districts, in which neighboring companies band together to produce their own electric power. The concept is already popular among communities in Europe and a similar version of it is being used in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla." Michael Freimuth, the economic development director for Stamford, Conn. which is home to several large financial companies 30 miles west and north of New York City told the AP, "It's reached a point now where we have to reactive to the private market." Meanwhile, Guy Warner, the president of Pareto Energy in Washington DC said, the concept new micro energy centers is "just trying to put in a district where businesses can voluntarily come together ... to better plan out energy - more affordably, more reliably and more environmentally sustainable." According to the model, "The entities in the district would essentially plan an electrical system that uses the energy efficiently, based on their needs. For example, a hotel and office building might team up, with the hotel needing more electricity at night and the office building needing it more during the day," the AP reported. The electricity would be generated by local resources such as biofuels, hydro-generators, solar, wind or other sustainable and clean methods.
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