Power cos have enough energy for Northeast demand
NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Reuters) Power companies in the icy U.S. Northeast, citing rising
temperatures, said they were increasingly confident Friday they had enough energy to
avert rolling blackouts, a possibility they warned of earlier.
"As long as generation remains in place and people continue to conserve, we do not think
rolling blackouts will be needed," said Chris Riley, a spokesman for Connecticut Light
and Power, citing weaker demand due in part to school closures. ISO New England, the
regional power grid operator, earlier Friday urged utilities to prepare for possible rotating
outages as natural gas supplies for power plants came under heavy pressure from soaring
home heating demand. "The capacity situation has improved. ISO New England said we
have up to 1,500 megawatts of surplus power. We are not anticipating any capacity
deficiencies," said Nancy Creed, a spokeswoman at Western Massachusetts Electric Co.,
an affiliate of Connecticut Light. Utilities across the U.S. Northeast and eastern Canada
delivered record-breaking amounts of electricity and natural gas during the arctic blast
without serious disruptions in service. GAS SUPPLIES CUT Some industrial customers,
however, saw their service cut over the past week, and will likely remain out until
sometime next week, according to gas distribution companies. Interruptible customers
buy gas at a discount on the understanding they can be cut off if it looks like there's not
enough gas available to meet residential demand. In such cases, most interruptible
customers can switch their operations over to other fuels, like oil or kerosene. Some gasfired plants may not be running for economic reasons that make it more profitable for an
energy company to sell the gas rather than burn to produce electricity, said Sandy
St.Pierre, a spokeswoman at Yankee Gas Service Co., which delivers natural gas to
customers in Connecticut. Western Massachusetts, Connecticut Light and Yankee Gas
are subsidiaries of Northeast Utilities Co. , the biggest energy company in New England.
RECORD WINTER Power grid operators and utilities from Philadelphia to Quebec
posted record winter energy demand this week as furnaces roared at homes and
businesses. KeySpan Corp. said the brutal cold triggered record natural gas demand from
its 2.5 million Long Island and New England customers. "The week's cold spell has
prompted Long Island customers to consume approximately 63 percent more natural gas
than is normally used during this time of year," KeySpan said in a statement on Friday.
Exelon Corp. subsidiary PECO Energy Co., which serves 1.5 million electric and
450,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania, said electricity demand hit a
new winter peak on Thursday, a record it predicted would be topped Friday. HydroQuebec, which sends electricity to 3.6 million customers in the Canadian province of
Quebec, said it also posted record power demand Thursday. But rising temperatures
Friday and prospects of a milder weekend ahead allowed the company to cancel its public
plea for energy conservation.