PENNSYLVANIA Advocate urges conservation, not more power plants

HARRISBURG (AP) -- A leading Pennsylvania advocate of conservation and renewable energy said Tuesday that the appropriate response to this month's massive blackout in the Midwest and Northeast is investing in conservation, not in building more power plants or transmission lines.
John Hanger, a former member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said instances of extreme demands for electricity in the mid-Atlantic region are rare -- the power grid is strained to capacity only about 100 hours a year -- and that electrical usage during other periods is only about half of the generating capacity.
Any large investment into the transmission or generation system as a result of the blackout would be ill-conceived and expensive, Hanger, president of the environmental advocacy group PennFuture, told a Capitol news conference.
One possibility
Quite possibly, he said, the blackout was a result of the power grids being operated poorly, and not the result of a shabby transmission system or overwhelmed generators.
Instead, such things as real-time meters installed in homes and businesses would allow users to voluntarily reduce electricity usage during high-use periods, Hanger said. Utilities could be required to pay customers for the electricity they do not use during those periods, he said.
Also, states need to push standards for electricity-efficient air conditioners because of inaction by the federal government, and homeowners and businesses could install digital electricity management systems that can reduce usage, Hanger said.
"It would be a much lower-cost approach than simply doubling the size of the grid or spending $100 million on transmission," Hanger said.
Maintaining reliability
Joe Patterson, a spokesman for PJM Interconnection, which operates the mid-Atlantic power grid, said the reliability of the transmission system in the grid has been maintained by an $800 million investment in the past four years by utilities and other PJM members.
Valley Forge, Pa.-based PJM covers 20,000 miles of high voltage transmission lines from Ohio and Washington, D.C., and has received credit largely for stopping the Aug. 14 blackout at its borders.
While Hanger has pushed the issue of getting real-time meters into homes and businesses, the Public Utility Commission has not required the utilities to use of them.
Pennsylvania Power & amp; Light has spent $160 million to install automated meters at 6,000 businesses that allow the company to monitor usage from afar, but could be upgraded to show real-time electricity usage to consumers, Hanger said.
The Democratic whip in the state House of Representatives, Mike Veon, appeared with Hanger and said he is considering introducing legislation that would advance conservation measures.
In addition, PennEnvironment, another environmental advocacy organization, said it is working with Republican lawmakers in southeastern Pennsylvania on a bill that would require higher energy efficiency standards for commercial products and home appliances from traffic signals to ceiling fans.