Although officials at the Northeast Power Coordinating Council(NPCC), which oversees electric power grid reliability forNortheastern North America, are forecasting sufficient electricitysupplies to meet demand this summer, they cautioned yesterday thatreserves are low.

Operable capacity within the New York and New England areas isprojected to be insufficient to fully meet NPCC’s operating reservecriteria during certain peak load hours, the organization said. Thesupply situation on hot and humid days this summer will be tight insome parts of the NPCC region. However, the reliability reportreleased yesterday by the NPCC concludes that appropriate actionshave been taken by grid operators to maximize the availability ofsupplies and to minimize the potential for any bulk power systemrelated customer service disruptions.

The NPCC region includes the New York and New England powergrids, as well as the power grids of Ontario, Quebec, and MaritimeProvinces of Canada.

“We expect that both New York and New England will experiencetight supply situations on peak demand days this summer,” saidEdward Schwerdt, Executive Director of NPCC. “This means New Yorkand New England will likely have days when operating reserves arelower than desired levels, but both grid operators have proceduresin place to respond to such situations.” These procedures includecalling upon neighboring grids for additional supplies, reducingdemand by invoking interruptible contracts with certain largecustomers or asking the public to conserve electricity during peakdemand periods.

Those procedures should be all too familiar. They had to be usedonly a few days ago when Spring temperatures and humidity made it seemmore like summer. The sudden heat caught many northeastern powergenerators with their plants down for Spring maintenance, forcing theNew England ISO and the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, MarylandInterconnection and their members to issue warnings and scramble tofind available power (see Daily GPI, May9 and May 10) in other regions.

“Because the grids are interconnected with one another, itallows for the movement of power between grids,” Schwerdt noted.”Under emergency conditions, NPCC will facilitate delivery ofexcess supply to where it is most needed this summer to assist inmaintaining bulk power system reliability throughout the region.”

Copies of the Summer 2000 Reliability Assessment are availableat www.npcc.org.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.