Well from information from SCI FI's Altantis Site under the ZPM information under technology, it can be deduced that the ZPM problem does not have much weight in the plotline to Atlantis.
It's stated that the city is powered by 3 ZPM. I realize that it might be extremely hard to find these 3 ZPM, but they know that it is on Atlantis and they can be found.
Therefore, I guess that this ZPM problem might not have much weight.


