Looks like they're getting ready for blackouts out in NY. The TVA also looks like they could be hurting this summer too...

http://news.iwon.com/home/news/news_article/0,11746,116984|top|04-14-2001::11:43|reuters,00.html

[b]Electric Utilities Gird to Battle Summer Heat[/b]

April 14, 2001 11:43 am EST

By Leonard Anderson

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Summertime, and the living looks anything but easy for U.S. utilities, whose electric systems face a double whammy this year of soaring demand and soaring temperatures.

While much of the West, New York and New England struggle with tight supplies, stifling heat waves pose another threat. Hot spells can trigger breakdowns from power plant turbines to substation transformers and can overload the high voltage circuits that carry power to hundreds of thousands of people.

"Summer can produce damaging heat 'storms' like winter brings blizzards, high winds, and torrential rains," said Scott Blakey, a spokesman for San Francisco-based PG&E Corp.'s Pacific Gas & Electric utility, the largest in California.

"Extreme heat or extended periods of high temperatures take a tremendous toll on the electric network and may cause equipment to fail," he said.

Transformers mounted high on power poles or encased in underground vaults may overheat and spew oils, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses, said utility engineers.

Hot weather and high volumes of electrons also cause high voltage power lines to sag, raising the danger of their coming in contact with nearby trees and shorting out circuits serving thousands of customers.

PG&E, New York's Consolidated Edison and other energy providers spend billions of dollars a year to beef up their networks for summer operations, but problems always crop up and can affect consumers hundreds of miles away because grids are interconnected.

COLLAPSE OF WESTERN GRID

That was what happened in a devastating collapse of the grid serving the western U.S. during an August 1996 heat wave.

A big power line near Portland, Ore., sagged into a tree limb, sparking a drop in voltage and a blackout that raced south through California and the Southwest, shutting down power plants and transmission grids for 12 hours and plunging millions of people and businesses into the dark.

Con Ed, which was forced to black out the north end of Manhattan when overloaded underground lines broke down in a blistering July 1999 heat wave, is spending $430 million on new lines, substations and other gear to beef up its system for the summer's peak demand for air conditioning.

A top priority is the addition of more than 200 big underground transformers in Manhattan to keep power flowing from Wall Street to Washington Heights, said John Miksad, chief engineer for distribution.

[b]Con Ed is adding more equipment at substations to send electrons to big financial centers like the Federal Reserve Bank and New York Stock Exchange if lines fail during a hot spell.[/b]

[b]Con Ed's network is "in good shape," said Miksad, though he warned that "power supplies will be tight" in the region.[/b]

Nevertheless, he said there should be enough electricity to serve the nation's most populous city through the summer months.

[b]New York community groups, however, may short circuit the outlook. They are suing on environmental grounds to block the New York Power Authority from installing 10 "peaker" turbines in the city capable of providing power for more than 400,000 homes.[/b]

TRACKING WEATHER CHARTS

Power planners everywhere are eyeing the weather charts. Ed O'Lenic, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's climate prediction center in Camp Springs, Md., expects [b]above normal temperatures in the drought-stricken Pacific Northwest and abnormally high temperatures blanketing the Southwest and Texas.[/b]

O'Lenic [b]also forecasts hot dry air extending from the Southeast north into Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the usual hot summer in California's central valley.[/b]

Drought over a seven-state area in the Southeast is a headache for plants operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest federal power wholesaler.

[b]TVA, which generates enough electricity for about 29 million homes, faces a third straight summer of low water levels on the Tennessee River and its tributaries.[/b]

Power plants need huge volumes of water to cycle through their cooling systems. When rivers drop too low, engineers are forced to cut back electricity production.

[b]TVA has "powered back" at some of its plants due to low water but so far has not run into supply shortages, said spokeswoman Barbara Martocci.[/b]

"The water levels are not back to where we want them but we don't expect real supply problems this summer," she said.

Drought and heat also will pressure hydro-power generation in the Northwest, while beleaguered California forecasts more blackouts from a triple whammy of a dry winter, the usual summer heat in the inland valleys, and its intractable energy emergency.

California power officials fret that sharply lower imports from utilities in the Northwest and Arizona and a one-third reduction in its own hydro-electricity will put more pressure this summer on operators of in-state plants.

Power plants are packed with boilers, turbines, generating shafts, a maze of cooling pipes and electrical links to nearby transformers and other equipment which need constant care.

Like a car needing a tune-up and oil change, they must be shut down for routine maintenance.

Although many of California's plants have been idled this year for scheduled and emergency repairs, they may be called on this summer to run full out to keep air conditioners humming.

The California Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state's grid, estimated that if California consumes the same amount of electricity that it did last summer, it faces 34 days of rolling blackouts this year when daily demand tops 40,000 megawatts -- enough electricity for about 40 million homes.

[i]Fair use, for educational purposes.[/i]

-- Deb Mc (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), April 14, 2001