In Actor-Network-Studies, breakdowns like the Columbia shuttle disaster have appeared as illustrations of how easily ‘objects flip-flop their mode of existence’, from ‘completely silent intermediaries’ to ‘full-blown mediators’ (Latour 2005: 81). This line of thought might be extended to the nexus between technologies, users and practices. How easily do practices flip-flop? This is not just an academic question but touches on the basics of behaviour change. In addition to asking about the resilience of infrastructures – how much damage can a system withstand, and how easily is it repaired – we should also ask about the elasticity of rhythms. How far can rhythms be stretched, and for how long? Why do they snap in some contexts but not in others? These are timely questions as energy and water industries are beginning to look beyond supply-based solutions to modifying consumption in order to reduce stress on crisis-prone systems.
In addition to component failures and maintenance problems (considerable in the United States), power shortages register the growing number of technologies and activities powered by electricity. In Finland, for example, 40 per cent of all houses were still heated by wood in the 1960s; by 2006 this figure had dropped to a mere 10 per cent. Most homes are kept warm through district heating fed by combined heat and power plants. This is a relatively energy-efficient system (utilizing c. 85 per cent of the fuel energy value) compared to producing electricity separately (c. 45 per cent). But it also means a tight interdependence between electricity and heat, making Finland particularly vulnerable to a power shortage; at an outside temperature of –26 degrees Celsius, it takes less than forty-eight hours for the temperature to drop from +22 degrees Celsius to freezing point. The incidence of blackouts might therefore be rare (thirteen in rural, four in populated areas in 2006), but the consequences are disastrous; in November 2001 when two storms hit Finland, 800,000 people in total were affected, including 1,600 for more than five days (Landstedt and Holmstroem 2007).
In warmer regions, too, technologies have facilitated new cultures of comfort that have added pressure on energy systems. The spread of air-conditioners has been accompanied by an increasing rate of blackouts in India (Wilhite 2008: 117–121) but also in Italy. Mediterranean countries are becoming more vulnerable to public supply disasters during heatwaves. During the heatwave of 2003, the national grid in Italy introduced power cuts as early as June – the first in twenty years. In France, demand for electricity was almost 10 per cent above the previous year (IEA 2005: 39–41). This interweaving of technologies and habits takes place at the office as well as in the home. Coffee and Xerox machines are switched on routinely on arrival in the office, while computers are left on after departing in the evening. In eleven offices surveyed in San Francisco and Washington, DC, in 2000, a mere 44 per cent of computers and 32 per cent of monitors were switched off at night (IEA 2005: 81).
Disruption is Normal
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