Ilan Ben Zion is an AFP reporter and a former news editor at The Times of Israel.
The Reading power plant lit up with the national power consumption graph. (photo credit: Chen Leopold/Energy Ministry)
In an attempt to raise public awareness about national energy consumption as the summer heat drains Israel’s power production capability, the Energy and Water Ministry launched a unique venture to put the country’s energy usage in front of every Tel Avivi’s eyes Wednesday night.
The Reading power plant lit up with the national power consumption graph. (photo credit: Chen Leopold/Energy Ministry)
A graph made up of 270,000 LED bulbs on 4.5km of tracking has been installed on Tel Aviv’s Reading power plant’s smoke stack. The installation rises 100 meters over Tel Aviv’s port, is six meters wide and consumes a mere nine kWh, the power used to run four electric kettles. It plots the country’s energy consumption in real-time.
“Presenting a graph of the energy demand aims to light up the eyes and enlighten the nation regarding the power shortage,” National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said.
The project, designed by artist and lighting designer Gil Teichman, displays and illustrates electricity demand versus production capacity in real-time.
Israel is in the midst of a severe power shortage. Power supplies took a major blow with the halting of natural gas supplies from Egypt earlier this year, and the IEC warned that this summer its power-generating abilities would be a mere one percent above the expected demand.
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