ELECTRICAL UTILITIES SAY THEY'RE READY FOR SUMMER
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS -- Electrical utilities serving Southern
Illinois say they are in good shape to handle the increase associated with
typical higher summer demands.
Officials also are hopeful that last year's blackout which left millions of
customers in the Midwest, Northeast and Canada without power, won't be repeated.
The outage did not affect Illinois.
"There is plenty of electricity in Illinois," said Tim Reeves,
president and general manager of Southern Illinois Power Co-op. "There is
actually an excess of generation here."
The co-op feeds power from its Lake of Egypt plant to 70,000 meters throughout
Southern Illinois. The facility has a generating capacity of 441 megawatts, far
greater than the 370 megawatts needed during peak demands.
Officials at AmerenCIPS, another key Southern Illinois power provider, said they
also are confident demand won't zap supply even under extreme conditions.
"Even under a worst-case scenario we believe we have capacity sufficient
enough to handle power demands," said Leigh Morris, director of corporate
communications. "We do not anticipate a need for load curtailment for our
customers."
Morris said the company is projecting peak demand to reach 2,110 megawatts, up
from 2,055 megawatts last year. Power to the region comes from any of a handful
of generating plants it operates, including the 519-megawatt facility at Grand
Tower.
"You can't tell where the electrons come from when they leave a generating
plant. They follow the laws of physics of following the path of least
resistance," Morris said. "Suffice it to say, it comes from our
system."
Morris said the forecast in a higher seasonal peak is indicative of a
stronger economy and more people tapping into the system.
"More people are running air conditioners and using electronic devices.
There are more homes and more customers," Morris said. "The economy in
the first quarter improved, and that translates into a greater demand for
electricity."
Illinois Power also is ready for the summer spike in usage. The company serves
more than 650,000 customers statewide, and anticipates a summer peak load in its
control area of 4,112 megawatts. It is an energy delivery company.
"Essentially, the bottom line is the customers should feel confident that
they'll have electricity this summer," said Shirley Swarthout, a IP
spokeswoman, said.
Reeves, of Southern Illinois Power Co-op, said his biggest concern isn't the
ability to produce electricity but a failure of the transmission system should
local generators break down. That would force providers to augment their
supplies with energy purchased elsewhere. That increases the potential for
overloading the transmission system.
"If one line goes down it shifts the load to other lines. We could start
losing lines," Reeves said.
The "cascading" of the transmission system failing is what occurred
last August when a failure in the system tripped other parts of it to shut down
because loads couldn't be handled. Within three minutes 21 power plants shut
down.
But Tom Overbye, a University of Illinois professor and a U.S. Department of
Energy lead investigator into the blackout, said it wasn't the reliability of
the system, but Mother Nature and human error, that caused the failure.
"Most have backed away from the argument that the aging transmission system
was the problem," Overbye said. "We've learned that the causes of the
blackout were trees which caused lines to go out of service and a lack of
situational awareness. Control centers didn't know what was going on with the
power system. They are working on ways to better monitor the system."
Overbye said utilities are being more active in trimming trees from high-voltage
transmission lines.
"We want our power but we also like our trees," he said. "The
limited capacity of the transmission system wasn't the problem. It was not
operating it in a safe manner."
Swarthout at IP said the company is working hard at removing threats to power
lines with some success. Service interruptions related to trees dropped about 15
percent since 2000. Last year, trees accounted for 3.9 percent of losses of
power to customers.
"Lack of tree maintenance was one of three main factors in the
blackout," she said.
Overbye said Illinois is in good shape when it comes to availability of
electricity. He said generating facilities here are capable of producing 40,000
megawatts of electricity. Overall demand is estimated at 30,000 megawatts.
"The Illinois system is a strong system. It helps being in the central
U.S., where we can get supplies on all sides," Overbye said.
Overbye said the greatest threat isn't from a lack of supply or a failure of the
high-voltage lines, but as the system snakes closer to a residence more trees
could fall, snapping lines.
"Most of the losses to the grid happen in that last couple of miles to the
house," he said.
jeff.smyth@thesouthern.com 618-529-5454 x15073