
10 years ago, how many folks remember going to the phone company
and telling them "I need 600 phone lines in my basement."  And the
phone company replying, "No one needs 600 phone lines, here is 6."
"No really, I need 600 lines in the next 12 months."  The phone
company replies, "When you need them, then we'll install them."
"How long will it take."  The phone company replies, "Don't worry,
we know what we're doing, that's none of your concern."

This was followed by the phone companies complaints that the Internet
wave hit them "without notice."  Even though ISPs had been giving them
forcasts about the demand, the phone companies didn't want to make
the investment because those Internet companies might disappear in
3 months and leave a bunch of unused capacity.

Internet companies and web hosters have been giving power companies
forcasts for several years about their electrical demands.  And once
again, the reply usually was, "No one needs 10 Megawatts for an office
building, here is 10 Kw."  "No really, we need 10 Megawatts."  The power
company replies "Don't worry, we know what we're doing."

If you look at the last three stage 3 alerts, there has always been
extra power available in the Western electrical grid.  The problem has
been one of credit, not power.



One thing that would help.

Sun, Dell, Cisco, Compaq, Juniper, etc.  Can you please start listing
the true power draw of your equipment, not just the fuse rating.  It
would make forcasting a lot easier, if we knew ahead of time how much
the equipment will really draw.




