Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt Damian James' Blog: 1 June 2009 - Power cut
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Damian James' Blog: 1 June 2009 - Power cut

Date: 01 June 2009

Damian James is Head of Transport Provision for Bracknell Forest Council and a technology champion

It's rare nowadays to get a power cut and if you do it will probably only lasts for a couple of minutes. I remember when I was growing up in the Devon countryside we regularly had days without power after a fallen tree had taken out some power lines or some other force of nature had disrupted our supply.

It was just part of life.

This week however my office, along with the rest of the local area suffered a whole day without power. You might recognise the sinking feeling that I had as I was happily typing up a report and reorganising a spreadsheet when suddenly with no warning everything switches off.

I was left looking at a rather blank screen. In the offices around me I could here a collective sigh as other people were left in the same position.

Anyway we all decamped to another office which did have power and life continued. Luckily by the next day everything was back on as usual.

The experience made me think about vehicle reliability and how we are all so used to turning the key and the engine firing up.

With all this talk about alternative fuels and in particular electric vehicles, manufacturers are going to have to do a very good job of convincing me they have reliability cracked.

The industry has spent the past 100 years or so getting petrol and diesel technology refined (and I'm sure there is still some way to go).

The electric vehicle industry may have been around for a long time but there are still some fundamentals that need fixing such as price, reliability, range, speed etc.

Whilst there have been some major steps forward with electric vehicles they are currently either out of reach financially for organisations or not practical for daily operational use. With the recent funding initiative announced by the Government including support for organisations that take them onto their fleet I hope this will change.

Lets also hope that with an election looming next year the commitment to invest into this technology doesn't just fizzle out like my computer this week!



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