drought and power

I read something in the news yesterday that got me thinking.  Due to the heat and the lack of substantial rainfall over the last few years, some of the rivers are threatening to run dry.  

I live on an island.  We don't have that snowpack that they do on the mainland - melting glaciers and that kind of thing.

What we do have are a lot of hydro dams.  That's basically the main source of electrical power for the whole province.  So much so that we don't have 'electric bills' we have 'hydro bills'.  There is one pseudo-government company that provides and maintains all electrical hydro services for the provance.  Because of this, there has been little to no incentive to seek other sources of electricity (or 'hydro' as it's called here).  A centralized power system works for the hydro company and the government.   It also means some of the cheapest hydro electrical rates in the world.  As a customer, I like this last point very much.  I have plans to go off grid in about 10 years when the roof needs re-doing we will install solar panels and maybe a little wind generator.  But there's no rush because hydro is so cheap here.  

The thing about hydro is that it requires water.  With the weather patterns over the last four years, we have a lot less water than we used to.

In the news, they mentioned that if we don't get rainfall at our regular time, there is a chance some of the dams might not work properly.  

It got me thinking what life would be like without constant power.  

They would probably start turning off electric a few hours of the day, in which case get a battery pack to charge during the non-peak time.
Setup some type of co-generation heat and electricity for the winter, the extra heat could also run AC units in the summer.
This probably means more natural gas imports to your island.

You could conserve by using less electronics and AC and kitchen appliance (fridge, hot plate, etc). Sun dry vs electric dryer, etc etc

Conservation is good.

This is part of our plan for going off-grid, to get in the hobbit of using as little hydro as possible.  Our electrical uses at home are pretty low.  No AC or anything like that.  Just cooking, cleaning, well, and   Our neighbours spend between 14 and 17 times more on hydro than we do.  

It's just interesting to me that I never thought the hydro could be interrupted like that.  We are too well trained here.

It's interesting to see how the weather effects us.

It affects all of us, as water/ food instability increase. Doing business in a stable environment, will affect human emotions, general availability, etc

Most water shortage problems could be solved, even in a changing climate, if people would implement rainwater harvesting earthworks.