Energy Planning Network: Summer Worries (August 2000)
Fears of electric power reliability for this summer persist as a result of the power outages and other problems of last summer. The summer of 1999 was 5% hotter than normal. The month of July, in particular, was a record 14.4% hotter than normal. Based on the assumption of normal weather (which implies that this summer’s cooling degree-days would be 1.9% below last summer’s), the DOE expects summer electricity demand to be up by 1.3% compared with last summer’s demand. In this case, shortages cannot be ruled out if there is a repeat of last summer’s record heat. Major concerns for utilities are the possibility of severely spiking power prices and transmission equipment failure during hot spells.
The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) said recently that peak power demand this summer will be 1.8% higher than it was last summer. New England, New York, and the Southwest were noted as areas of concern.