June 28, 2000

Energy chief: Power outages imminent

By H. Josef Hebert The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, already trying to address the problem of high oil and gasoline prices, warned Wednesday some parts of the country face an "imminent" threat of electric power outages.

"We're concerned about the reliability of the electricity grid this summer," Richardson told the House Commerce Committee. He said New England, California and the Pacific Northwest were in greatest jeopardy.

Earlier this week, Californians were urged to voluntarily reduce their electricity use to avoid power outages because of concerns about supplies during the heat wave that has struck much of the West.

Generator problems in other states had limited the amount of electricity being shipped into the state from other regions, including the Northwest.

At the same time, Richardson said he was concerned about possible power interruptions in the Northeast because of problems at the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire.

He said while concerns have eased in New England because of a turn to cooler weather, 100-degree heat across much of the West means both California and the Northwest "remain very vulnerable to power outages" during peak demand periods.

California and the Northwest have been "barely able to avoid rolling blackouts," said Richardson.

In May, the industry-sponsored North American Electric Reliability Council said in a review of potential power problems this summer that most of the country appeared to have sufficient electricity supplies.

But the council said there were areas of concern in the Northeast, the Southwest and California. It said utilities have procedures in place "to deal with capacity shortages."

Nationwide, the council said that this summer's peak demand for electricity is expected to be 1.7 percent higher than last summer. It said that additional generating capacity has been put into place in Illinois, Texas and the Southeast, where power interruptions were a problem last year.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 28, 2000