Officials warn Whitfield that power is low

10 August 2000

The (Henderson) Gleaner

While western Kentucky hasn't experienced the blackouts that have plagued California this summer, power company officials in Henderson told U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield on Wednesday that electricity supplies are tight and could grow tighter.

Power usage sets records almost every summer because of population and industrial growth as well as heavy air conditioning usage during hot spells.

While this summer has been relatively mild, Henderson Municipal Power and Light nonetheless was approaching a record Wednesday afternoon, General Manager Jeff Garner said.

"On days like today, we have technicians virtually baby-sitting the equipment" to ward off breakdowns when power plants are being run to their limits, said Rob Toerne, contract manager for Western Kentucky Energy, which operates the Big Rivers Electric Corp. and HMP&L Station Two power plants.

"If we lose one (generating) unit, it's devastating financially" because WKE would have to buy very expensive emergency power from other utilities, Toerne said.

And utilities here can be affected by problems at neighboring utilities. If one of the big generating units at American Electric Power's Rockport, Ind., plant were to fail on a hot day, a domino effect of failures at other plants connected via the nationwide transmission system could occur, Big Rivers President Mike Core said.

http://www.messenger-inquirer.com/kentucky/1961821.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 10, 2000