Electric Executives' Forum - Summer 2001: Are You Ready?

Electric Executives' Forum
Summer 2001: Are You Ready?

 

Demand-side programs are all the rage as utilities scramble to find power to serve peak loads.

Be prepared. Power interruptions are not necessarily expected -nevertheless, be prepared-but by God, line up all the weapons you can to prevent blackouts in the first place.

Whether it's Utah or New York, that's the chant heard from the five industry leaders interviewed for annual Electric Executive's Forum. To examine how power companies of all shapes and sizes are confronting this summer's looming blackout possibilities, the interviewed executives from a cross-section of utilities-from giant PacifiCorp, which owns utilities in six Western states, to tiny Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power, server of approximately 140 megawatts of load.

And with that cross-section of utilities comes a whole cross-section of problems and challenges. Cheyenne Light's Rick Kaysen, for example, just recently found himself scrambling for reasonably-priced power when a long-term contract with PacifiCorp covering Cheyenne Light's entire load expired in December. Cheyenne Light had looked to PacifiCorp for its power for some 37 years. Alan Richardson and PacifiCorp, meanwhile, have had to prepare their own family of utilities for the coming summer by attacking the challenge from all sides, investing in new generation and creating a bevy of demand-side programs to shave off load while simultaneously adding megawatts.