State Regulators Urge Energy Reliability Law

State Regulators Urge Energy Reliability Law

Jun 04 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - By THOMAS CONTENT

Wisconsin's energy regulators and Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday called on Congress to pass new energy reliability standards to help prevent blackouts.

Mandatory reliability standards -- advocated by industry experts since the late 1990s -- are included in an energy bill that has stalled in Congress.

Under the proposal, utilities would be punished for violating rules designed to limit how much electricity can be sold over the nation's aging power grid.

In a report on last summer's massive blackout, which stretched from Ohio and Michigan to the East Coast and parts of Canada, the state Public Service Commission endorsed mandatory reliability standards.

"If Congress doesn't act to impose some minimum standards, we're going to continue to be at the mercy of these sorts of events in the future, and that's unacceptable," said Burnie Bridge, chairwoman of the state Public Service Commission.

"We should have learned our lesson last year."

The power stayed on in Wisconsin last summer, although a surge in voltage caused one coal-fired boiler at the Edgewater power plant in Sheboygan to trip off line during the blackout. The blackout left 50 million people in the U.S. and Canada without power.

The commission decided that no new action is needed in Wisconsin, particularly because the state already has reporting requirements relating to both reliability performance and tree-trimming. Wisconsin utilities must file regular reports with the commission demonstrating that they have complied with their own preventive maintenance plans.

Failure to trim trees adequately contributed to three transmission lines in Ohio failing during the minutes leading up to last summer's blackout, a joint U.S.-Canada task force concluded earlier this year.

The reliability of Wisconsin's power grid isn't guaranteed, thanks to a two-decade hiatus from building power plants and power lines to keep up with growing demand, the commission said.

"The Wisconsin electric transmission system continues to be highly constrained and only marginally adequate as to its ability to transport power into and within the state," the commission said.

The commission has already approved several projects to beef up the state's power grid, and is expecting dozens more applications from American Transmission Co., which last year announced a $2.8 billion plan to expand and upgrade power lines and substations over 10 years.

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