It’s hot, but power grid stays cool

BANGOR – New England flirted with a record high for power use Friday, but unlike when the mark was set two years ago, the region’s residents weren’t told to conserve electricity because of a possible shortage.

People throughout the state were turning on their air conditioners, running fans and doing whatever it took to keep cool. Most of their actions meant using electricity.

Temperatures Friday were in the 90s for most of the state. In Bangor, a high temperature of 95 degrees tied a record for the day set in 1930.

“There weren’t any other records met or set,” said Duane Wolfe, a meteorological technician at the National Weather Service in Caribou.

On Friday, more power was available for use because of the addition of several newly built power generators and a change in the way the grid’s governing board schedules power plant downtime for maintenance.

But under extreme heat and humidity conditions, the threat of a power plant going off line is greater, and calls for conservation can go into effect at any time, warns Stephen Ward, the state’s public advocate.

“You’d have to scramble to replace them,” Ward said. “Things could look perfectly rosy and then an hour later things are tight.”

Consumers used the most electricity, approximately 21,800 megawatts, around 4 p.m. Friday and usage stayed up there for about an hour until some businesses started closing for the weekend.

Friday’s usage exceeded two previous power use records, but falls short by about 700 megawatts of an all-time record set on July 6, 1999. On that day, New England used 22,523 megawatts of power.

What’s different between the record-setting day and Friday, though, is the amount of power available for use. A power warning was called on July 6, 1999, the third of three that summer, because electricity demand was within 900 megawatts of the available supply.

On Friday, ISO New England, the governing board that oversees the region’s power grid, still had 3,650 megawatts available beyond the peak demand.

“We’ve got a lot of power out there,” said ISO spokeswoman Ellen Foley.

Higher prices for electricity in some parts of Maine compared to two years ago didn’t seem to deter consumers Friday. That surprised Phil Lindley, an analyst and spokesman for the Maine Public Utilities Commission, who wondered whether people would use price as a conservation tool.

“It gets me thinking about myself,” Lindley said. “If I don’t see a power warning, I don’t think about it. I think about the price. That’s what gives people a better sense of what they should be doing, not if there’s a power warning out there.”

Temperatures today are expected to reach 90 degrees, but a few degrees cooler than Friday, Wolfe said.

“It looks like more of the same,” he said.

The power grid, however, shouldn’t be taxed because it is the weekend and most offices are closed.