New England heat wave prompts power warning Reuters ( July 24, 2001 )

(updates with power watch declared in New England, previous NEW YORK)

BOSTON, July 24 (Reuters) - The operator of the New England power grid, ISO New England, urged customers on Tuesday to conserve electricity due to a heat wave that has bathed the region in temperatures in the 90s, but said it did not expect any brown outs or black outs.

For the second day in a row, the electricity generator for the six-state region was forced to buy emergency power supplies because of low reserves.

ISO urged New England residents to conserve electricity by limiting air conditioning, turning off all unnecessary lights and equipment, and defer doing laundry until late evening.

ISO forecast it would set a record peak load of 23,225 megawatts (MW) for Tuesday, up from Monday's peak of 22,188 MW. The region's all-time peak is 22,544 MW set on July 6, 1999, during a three-day heat wave.

One megawatt is enough electricity for about 1,000 average homes.

"We're expecting to reach our 23,650 (megawatt) limit later today, around 3 p.m., but we're not anticipating any brown outs or black outs," a spokesman for the grid operator said.

So far on Tuesday, ISO New England has bought 300 MW from New York, 650 MW from New Brunswick and 1,700 MW from HydroQuebec, the spokesman said.

Temperatures in the 90s and high humidity are stifling the region and relief is not expected before Thursday.

Adding to weather woes for New Englanders, ISO warned that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was predicting a second day of unhealthy air quality today.

The EPA predicted unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone for all of Connecticut, Rhode Island, most of Massachusetts (except for South Coast, Cape Cod and the Islands), the coastal areas of Maine, southern New Hampshire and southern Vermont.

HOT IN NEW YORK

And the heat wasn't limited to New England.

Temperatures in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., were forecast at 91-93 degrees.

New York ISO forecasts a peak load of 29,500 megawatts, the highest yet for the year. Currently, the load in New York is 29,300 MW.

New York is expected to meet its reserve requirement of 1,800 MW during the time of the peak expected at about 4 p.m. .

Spot prices on the power market in New York City were $79-$80 a MW hour in mid-afternoon trade.

For Wednesday, high temperatures were expected at 92-93 degrees in the major metropolitan areas from Washington, D.C., to Boston, but a cold front was expected to move into the Northeast U.S. late in the day, driving temperatures down to 74-82 degrees on Thursday.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), July 25, 2001