Falling Like Dominoes

EEI Newsletter continues to report serious problems for the nation's electric system due to the heat caused by global climate change:

Demand Records 'Falling Like Dominoes' in Heat Wave, EEI Says

The sweltering heat wave running across the United States is straining the nation's power grid, various news reports said. EEI President Tom Kuhn was quoted by the Washington Post today as saying: "Electricity demand records are falling like dominoes. The system is being tested everywhere." In New York City, where city building managers were instructed to reduce usage, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted by the New York Times as saying: "This is a very serious, dangerous heat wave. We're all tough, but a little bit of common sense and a little bit of cooperation will go a long ways here." The Times also reported that PJM Interconnection was calling for conservation steps.

ConEd CEO Kevin M. Burke, who made his first appearance at a New York City Council hearing testifying about the recent Queens outages, told the Times he remained "most concerned" about what the newspaper called "the still-fragile power network that covers western Queens, where he said there was a higher risk of another power failure in the coming days."

In the Washington metropolitan area, Pepco and Dominion Virginia Power reported no significant heat-related problems, the Washington Post reported, but conservation requests have been issued. Wrote the Post: "Unlike the electricity transmission grid in California, which has not built power generating plants fast enough to meet growing electricity demand, the regional grid that includes Washington has enough generating capacity, officials said."

PJM spokesman Ray Dotter told the Post that the network "expected to supply a peak of 143,000 megawatts of power an hour today - which would break the record of 139,747 megawatts set during the region's last heat wave two weeks ago."
Associated Press (New Jersey) via the Philadelphia Inquirer , Associated Press (Wisconsin) via Janesville, Wis., Gazette , New York Sun , New York Times (Large clients) , New York Times (Heat wave) , New York Times (PJM) , Washington Post , Aug. 1.