As 2005 draws to a close, part of me wants just to close the door and move on in the hope that what we have witnessed this year is an aberration. Most of me, however, suspects that what the future holds is at least as challenging…except that we’ve received a series of wakeup calls that only the most callous among us can ignore.

True, we are not able to control the magnificent forces of nature any more than we can escape the malevolence of humankind and it’s penchant for self destruction…nor can we can go back in time and avert the death, destruction, and shattered dreams these have wrought throughout history. Instead we have the opportunity to learn from them and perhaps profit from the shortfalls in our disaster response preparations.

The first order of business, it seems to me, is to recognize that it is not the existence of calamitous events that is the issue, rather our increasing vulnerability to them. Population growth is one aspect of this, but urbanization and its dependence on increasingly sophisticated and vulnerable infrastructure is where we are most at risk. At the heart of this infrastructural challenge lies our near total dependence on electrical energy, a fact made painfully obvious in the first paragraph of nearly every disaster report detailing the contribution the loss of this vital resource has to the calamity at hand.

Whether the issue of concern is communications, transportation, water and sewage transport and delivery, or power for critical services, electrical energy is the essential ingredient. We know it. We’ve been shown it time after time. This dependence grows hour-by-hour with every new arrival in our infrastructure-dominated world, yet we continue to ignore the lessons of the past---lessons that show indelibly the weaknesses and risks of centralized systems---and go right back to those systems that failed.

Carrying Out Our Mission
In my editor’s comments for our very first issue of Distributed Energy, referencing the well-planned, organized, and coordinated terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center’s twin towers, I suggested that “Other than laying down barbed wire and posting guards to protect strategic facilities, we seem no closer to coming to grips with many of the risks than we were in the wake of September 11, 2001.” Despite the billions of dollars poured into Homeland Security, and the issuance at long last of a Federal Energy Policy, I see no reason to amend this assessment.

While working to increase our ability to respond to disaster is certainly an underlying premise of Distributed Energy, it has not---nor will it---dictate our approach to the subject. In 2005, we presented 34 case studies of up-and-operating DE projects, primarily here in North America. As from the magazine’s very first issue, it has been our intent not just to highlight the activities and their economics but also to delve into the challenges, concerns, and rationale underlying decisions critical to project success. Here are the general guidelines I ask my writers to consider as they build their articles.

• What DE activities are involved and what are the goals?
• When did the project owners begin to think about this activity, and what motivated them to move forward?
• Who was involved in the "discovery" process and, if consultants were involved, how were they selected?
• What did they see as the alternatives to (a) the project and (b) the way it would be handled?
• What were the expectations at the outset? What factors predominated their thinking as they approached taking action?
• When and by whom was the decision to proceed made?
• Who was involved in the action, and what were the principal issues each faced?

While the solutions portrayed in these profiles may not match your own specific needs, I’d like to suggest that you will see many of your own concerns addressed and perhaps answered in the experiences of those whose projects are chronicled in these pages. Thus, it is in the telling of such stories that we expect Distributed Energy to become a reference guide to you as you contemplate the addition of DE to your operations.

Finally, if you have a story relevant to other readers you feel needs to
be told, please contact me at deeditor@forester.net. Let's talk.

DE - November/December 2005