(Crossposted from the Year 2000 forum)

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01/04 02:18 PM Dow Jones New Service

U.S. DOE: Reliability of electric grid not acceptable U.S. DOE: Summer demand strains deregulating system U.S. DOE: Congress should pass national bill

Story 4003 New York ( Dow Jones )-- Rising U.S. electricity demand combined with electric industry deregulation and restructuring threatens the reliability of the country's power system, according to the Department of Energy's interim report on several blackouts last summer.

" while the electric industry is undergoing fundamental change, the necessary operating practices, regulatory policies, and technological tools for dealing with those changes are not yet in place to assure an acceptable level of reliability," a DOE press release on the report stated tuesday. "A significant increase in electricity use, especially during times of peak demand, is stressing the electric system," the DOE said. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said the report should motivate congress to pass the administration's electricity competition legislation to address existing uncertainties in the industry. The final DOE report on this summers' blackouts in New York City, Chicago, Long Island, New Jersey and other areas should be issued in March. It will recommend solutions, and it will be followed by regional policy discussions across the country, the DOE said. -By Mark Golden mark.golden@dowjones.com

hmmm.......good thing the embeddeds turned out to be less of an issue; this is what botherd me ala dick mills about y2k and power. that we are already barely getting by in terms of generating capacity and that even a 5%-10% loss would have caused big problems this summer. HOPEFULLY all plants are just dandy and we ONLY have to worry about an already tight supply / demand issue.

here's to cold beer and cable tv !! :-)

-- brent garcia (brent@pacamsecurities.com) , January 04, 2

-- Brent Garcia (brent@pacamsecurities.com), January 04, 2000

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