Top Locations for E-Business/Internet Projects Outside the U.S. Number of E-business/Internet projects in last 13 months 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 UK             Germany       France     Sweden     Canada     Ireland     India     Netherlands   Italy   Singapore   Australia   Japan   Denmark   Spain   Switerland   0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers' Global Investment Location Database (GILD)

    Energy concerns of the sort that have emerged in the past six months were perhaps inevitable, given the various approaches to deregulation at work in the U.S. and elsewhere. But in light of what's been taking place in high-tech haven California, the facet of infrastructure that holds the most interest among corporate real estate professionals today is "Will there be enough power?"
     The state's power supply problems will no doubt hurt its traditionally high spot in business climate rankings, especially in its vaunted high-tech sector. As a recent report on National Public Radio revealed, the "tenuous" power supply is only adding to the snarled traffic and stratospheric residential real estate markets in directly affecting plans of big companies and entrepreneurs alike. Fiber-optic networking company ONI Systems, San Jose, is dealing with it by starting to look elsewhere, even as it readies to hire 500 people.
     "It's very frustrating, surreal," says CEO Hugh Martin, who's now looking to expand in North Carolina, Canada or New England. "Based on the events of the last month, we've decided this is the straw that broke the camel's back. The cat's out of the bag, and we're off looking at other things."
     Forbes cites some revealing statistics: the demand for power in the Valley has increased by 33 percent since 1996, and the state's population has increased 14 percent to 34 million since 1990. Yet, according to columnist Peter Huber, 20 of the 25 new plants proposed since 1999 have been blocked by state-imposed regulatory obstacles. Even more worrisome is this: Even though the state already has to import around 25 percent of its power, he writes, "... no net increase in the capacity to import electric power is expected through 2007."
     Such a crisis hasn't been lost on location experts in other regions. A team from the Piedmont Triad Partnership (Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point) in North Carolina traveled recently to OFC 2001, a high-tech trade show on the West Coast, to tout their reliable power supply in addition to the state's other assets. And they were in good company.
     But more importantly, states are taking a hard look at what resources they do have and whether deregulating those industries is a good thing or not. Even long-tabled projects like the Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear plants in Browns Ferry and Bellefonte, Ala., shut down 16 years ago, are seeing renewed interest as demand for power escalates. TVA is considering their adaptability to non-nuclear fuel use as well, as it looks for new sources to serve its seven-state area.
     In New York, the Rochester Technology Park on Kodak's former campus is meeting the concern over power supply head on with development of an on-site power plant. The goal is to provide tenants with less costly and more reliable power than can be provided by commercial utilities. Ironically, the park was purchased in 2000 by a California investment group. New York is bracing for its own series of rolling blackouts this summer.
     Europe, too, suffers from high energy prices and stretched capacity.
     "Power supply has never really been a major issue until the recent growth of colocation facilities, Internet data centers and carrier hotels," says Adam Breeze, director of TechLocate, based in London. "The growth of these in London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt has presented local authorities with a major headache, and new investment is being made to boost supply. However, many colocation providers are looking to roll out to second-tier cities across Europe. In most targeted cities like Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Ber-lin and Marseilles, the recent departure of many heavy industrial users has left a surplus of energy supply."