NERC Report: New Generation, Infrastructure Not Being Built Fast Enough

From today's edition of the New York Times:

Companies are not building power plants and power lines fast enough to meet growing demand, according to a group recently assigned by the federal government to assure proper operation of the power grid.

The group, the North American Electric Reliability Council, in its annual report, to be released Monday, said the amount of power that could be generated or transmitted would drop below the target levels meant to ensure reliability on peak days in Texas, New England, the Mid-Atlantic area and the Midwest during the next two to three years.

[...]

The report predicts that demand will increase by about 19 percent over the next 10 years in the United States, and slightly less in Canada, and that the construction of power plants and transmission lines to carry that load will fall far short of what is needed. In this country, utilities have contracts with new power plants for only about a third of the capacity that will be needed; in Canada, the number is about two-thirds.

The number of miles of transmission lines, which can help redistribute supplies, will increase by only about 7 percent, the report said.

Click here for the press release from NERC. Click here for the full report.

Technorati tags: Electricity, Energy, Politics, NERC, Grid Reliability

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