Utilities warn of rolling blackouts

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New Jersey utilities this afternoon warned residents they may have to institute rolling power blackouts because of an unexpected May heat wave that occurred while many of the regions power plants are offline for maintenance.

Public Service Electric and Gas Co., the states largest utility, is operating without the 1,000-megawatt power of the Hope Creek generating station, and some other plants are offline, spokeswoman Joey Anderson said.

Many power plants are taken out of service for maintenance in May to prepare for the summer, Anderson said.

May is traditionally not hot like this, she said.

Temperatures around New Jersey were above 90 today for the third straight day.

Anderson and other utilities are awaiting instructions on blackouts from the PJM Interconnection, a Pennsylvania-based power grid that supplies power to the Mid-Atlantic region.

Theyre telling us that because of the unusually high demand, the hot weather and to preserve the integrity of the whole system, we need to take measures to conserve, said Ron Morano, a spokesman for GPU Energy.

Twenty percent of PJMs capacity is out of service because of plant maintenance, Anderson said.

PSE&G was examining regions of the state today to decide where to initiate blackouts if necessary, and asking large businesses if it would be possible to switch over to backup generators.

The utilities urged customers to turn off or lower the power on air conditioners, turn off lights and electric household appliances, and wait until evening to use appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines.

http://inquirer.philly.com/briefs/#1138

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 09, 2000

Answers

Well, I am just getting back online after a big power surge here followed by a blackout which lasted for only about 5 minutes. Second one this week. I am in North Carolina. It's been very hot here since the weekend. It's going to be a long summer, I believe.

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), May 09, 2000.

We had power outages in my small Northern Calif. town 2 days running about 2 weeks ago. First lasted an hour, the second, next day, 15 minutes. Other than many that lasted only seconds, each time, over the years, these were the first 2 in 10 years.

Yes, the coming summer looks very troublesome to me.

-- JackW (jpwayn@webtv.net), May 10, 2000.

We had power outages in my small Northern Calif. town 2 days running about 2 weeks ago. First lasted an hour, the second, next day, 15 minutes. Other than many that lasted only seconds, each time, over the years, these were the first 2 in 10 years.

Yes, the coming summer looks very troublesome to me.

-- JackW (jpayne@webtv.net), May 10, 2000.