Electricity on Shabbos

The monthly European Yated Ne'eman reports (link):

Gedolei Yisroel shlita are calling on the public to continue supporting neighborhood generator initiatives by joining the ranks of chareidim who opt for kosher electricity on Shabbos, citing the need to avoid the use of electricity produced through chilul Shabbos.

R. Chaim Jachter has an essay on this subject in his Gray Matter volume 2. Here are some excerpts from his essay (pp. 54-66):

Rav [Yisrael] Rozen opens his essay [Techumin 16:36-50] by asserting that the State of Israel cannot function properly without electricity. Losing power in hospitals, army bases and outposts, and police stations clearly endangers lives. Furthermore, Rav Rozen claims that even lighting streets properly can be a matter of life and death. If streets were not lit, people’s safety and security would be considerably reduced. Moreover, refrigeration in many homes preserves medicines for people whose lives depend on them. Rav Rozen thus writes, “Cases of safek piku’ach nefesh (“possible threat to life”) are widespread throughout Israel, yet it is impossible to separate and direct the electricity exclusively to those individuals and institutions that require it for piku’ach nefesh.”

The workers and directors of the electric company cannot control electricity demand. Even if they wished to limit the use of electricity on Shabbat to essential needs, thereby eliminating unnecessary work at the power plant, there is little chance that the greater public would cooperate. Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Teshuvot Minchat Shlomo 2:15 and Tinyana 24) and Rav Shlomo Goren (Meishiv Milchamah 1:366–385) both therefore permit Israeli power plant workers to violate Shabbat in order to enable the plants to function properly.

Assuming that the power plant workers may maintain and repair what is needed on Shabbat, one could still question whether the general public may benefit for non-life-saving purposes from their work on Shabbat. Rav Shlomo Goren (ibid.) prohibits such benefit...

Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (ibid.) takes a different approach. He writes that the situation regarding electricity production is far more analogous to another case that appears in the above Gemara. If one slaughters an animal to feed its meat to a dangerously ill person on Shabbat, the Gemara states that anyone may consume that meat, even during Shabbat... Rav Shlomo Zalman argues that the production of electricity is analogous to these cases, so one may benefit from the electricity of power plants in Israel...

While older power plants required the manual addition of fuel every eight hours, today’s power plants are fully automated. This seemingly diminishes Rav Goren’s concern that a Jew actually produced the power on Shabbat. Rav Rozen explains that electricity is generated automatically, and as long as demand is relatively stable, the flow of fuel and the regulation of steam production are entirely automatic...

Rav Halperin suggests that automated power plants might indeed alleviate the problem of benefiting from the desecration of Shabbat, as any individual non-observant Jew’s behavior only indirectly contributes towards the eventual adjustments in the fuel supply. Thus, the automated adjustment might be considered a mere indirect result (grama) of chilul Shabbat. Additionally, even if most changes in the demand for electricity result from chilul Shabbat, the “straw that breaks the camel’s back” and sets the automated adjustments in motion could well be the activity of a non-Jew or a timer...

Although Israel’s power plants regrettably do not run in accordance with Halachah, most authorities nevertheless permit benefiting from the electricity produced by them, especially in today’s age of automation. In addition, one need not avoid setting electric timers prior to Shabbat. Those who follow the Chazon Ish use a private generator for Shabbat because they consider it a chilul Hashem to benefit from the national power network. Rav Halperin concludes his essay by urging the observant community to express its dissatisfaction with the unnecessary desecration of Shabbat that often takes place in Israeli power plants. We should feel pained by the fact that a completely acceptable situation still does not exist and look forward to the day when every aspect of Israel will run according to Halachah.