Tie Kuang stood on the porch with a handful of melted copper.
“The western power yard is down,” he said. “The main feeder burned through. Nobody was hurt, but the mine fans stopped for six minutes.”
Li Xiaoyao arrived behind him, carrying three ledgers and breathing hard. “Power use is fourteen times what it was last week. Every cheap connection we offered is now running something.”
Austin looked at the melted metal, then at the new load chart. Most of the demand came from useful things: mine pumps, furnaces, looms, cookstoves, and bath heaters. Some came from chargers piled in wet yards and workshops running every machine at once.
“Cheap power didn’t cause this,” he said. “We built a small distribution system and priced it as if it were a large one.”
He explained the old Jevons problem in plain terms. When power became cheaper and easier to use, people found more uses for it. Total demand went up instead of down.
Tie Kuang pointed toward the smoking valley. “So we make the copper thicker.”
“Some of it. That won’t carry power across a continent. Long lines waste too much as heat, and every storm gives us another break.”
