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June 10, 2008

National Grid: No power failures directly tied to heat

Despite record-shattering temperatures, National Grid has seen no power failures in Rhode Island today that were directly tied to the hot weather, according to a company spokesman.

"We have about a half-dozen single outages scattered around the state that do not appear to be weather related," said spokesman David Graves.

Graves said there had been about 1,600 customers on the Johnston-Providence line without power at 3:41 p.m., but those had been restored by evening. He said "it's difficult to say" if those were weather-related. He said a device that detects faults in the system opened, the way a circuit breaker does, and power had been temporarily down.

Projected evening thunderstorms that posed some concern earlier today appeared later to be on course to dissipate over the Berkshires in Massachusetts, Graves said.

ISO New England, the organization overseeing the power grid in the six New England states, projected a maximum demand of 27,020 megawatts for the region. It says it also has available an additional reserve ready if demand were to outstrip that projection.

One megawatt is enough to power between 750 and 1,000 homes. The current record for actual, realized demand for this month -- not simply the projection the ISO prepares for -- was set last June 27: a peak of 26,055 megawatts, said ISO spokeswoman Erin O'Brien

The all-time record for electrical use in New England was 28,130 megawatts, set in August 2006.

"Each day," said O'Brien, "We create a forecast for the region's electricity use and available supplies and other sources to meet that demand. We do that by taking a look at weather patterns -- for example, what day of the week it is, is school in session, is it a holiday, and we arrive at a forecast for the region's electricity use."

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 5:53 PM | Permalink

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