business; that groan you hear is from the power grid - integrated solar street light

By MATTHEW L.
The power supply of each street lamp, each water pump, each computer, each TV set, each TV studio--
In short, between Staten Island in ashtabra, Ohio and the northern end of Virginia, everything to power more than 23 million customers is in front of Joan Clark.
At the power control center here, at her desk.
System Operator Clark to a 20-foot-
High wall map of all power plants, lines and substations in the area.
The data transmission shown on the computer screen, her responsibility in this transformation.
In the heat and humidity of last summer, lights went off in New York City, New Jersey, Chicago and parts of the South
When the peak of power demand exceeds the system, the central state.
Federal officials and industry experts say this may happen again this year. But Ms.
Clark and her colleagues in PennsylvaniaJersey-
As the largest control center on the continent, the Maryland internet is trying not to let the threat affect their minds.
"I think it's a huge video game," she said . "Clark, an 11-year veteran.
She says she has all sorts of tools to repel the attackers, but "you only have one person and if one dies, you're done.
The lights are out.
Lady advertising.
Clark's "one man" is in trouble.
The strong US economy needs more power, and the restructuring of the power industry and partial deregulation mean that more and more power is traded and transmitted between widely separated producers and users.
The pressure on the electricity network is growing rapidly, the reserve ratio of the power system--
Excess power generation capacity over peak demand-
In some areas, it has shrunk to a disturbing 5% or less.
Advertising, but restructuring also creates a big obstacle for anyone in the industry to invest in power grids, build new lines, and even pay for research on how to transfer power more effectively.
Thanks to these pressures, even if reliability becomes more important, the country's electricity supply becomes less stable and reliable.
Thirty years ago, when the lights flashed, almost no one noticed.
Today, this flicker may crash the country's most dependent computer, from the control of complex manufacturing processes to the download of intermediate devicesSchool homework
There is clearly no immediate solution.
Tomorrow, Energy Minister Bill Richardson will hold a series of national conferences on power reliability in Hartford and Newark.
"While demand for electricity has soared, the reliability of our grid has sometimes declined," he said in a statement . ".
How much work the grid does is difficult to quantify.
Total consumption and production (always equal)
Can be measured, but not how many megawatts can be measured
How many miles did the hour move.
But there are indirect ways to measure the strain.
One is the number of times the utility calls emergency procedures called transmission line relief or T. L. R.
, When the grid cannot handle more capacity, a new transaction between the generator and the customer will be frozen for a period of time.
In a study in last December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission counted 400 such freezes in the first 10 months of 1999;
In 1998, there were only 300 people.
This shows that the grid is often unable to support the main goal of deregulation: allowing independent generators to compete in an open market.
If the grid is unable to handle the shipment of the cheapest generator, the user must purchase it from a more expensive source, while the cheaper power generation capacity is idle.
Experts say part of the problem is that in most countries, transmission
Regardless of distance or demand, the line owner will charge a flat fee.
So there is no way for them to lack a T. L. R.
Freeze to reduce the load when the system is tight.
Almost the only consortium operating in the Penn power grid region --Jersey-
Maryland uses a sliding charge standard for some transmissions, allocating scarce capacity to those who are willing to pay the most, and rarely does a freeze.
Even in all places, variable pricing is the norm, transmission is still regulated, revenue from line owners ---
Typical utility-
A fixed percentage cap for income.
Variable pricing can't increase their profits and they don't have the incentive to invest more capacity.
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According to the Power Research Institute of the utility trading group, the construction speed of new transmission lines has dropped by more than half from the 1980s to the 1990s;
Experts say the pace has slowed further since then.
"T. has a market solution. L. R.
"The problem," said Philip R . "
Before joining Harvard College in 1995, sharp served as chairman of the House Energy and Power Subcommittee for 14 years.
But he said there is nothing the market can do to solve the shortage of transmission capacity: "This is a problem that people must pay attention.
"This tension will also lead to an incredible spike in wholesale prices for electricity ---
From normal $20 to $30 per megawatt
Thousands of hours.
If there are enough power plants in every region of the country, or if the grid is always able to transfer the power to where it is needed, the peak will not happen.
Experts say that if there is a system that rewards more customers to reduce power use when demand is unusually high, they can also be blocked, airlines compensate for the way people are voluntarily hit from overbooked flights.
Two more legs for three people.
Electric leg stool--
Generation and Distribution-
The situation is much better.
Entrepreneurs are building traditional power plants, and scientists have made steady progress on alternatives such as windmills, fuel cells and solar cell arrays.
Distribution networks that deliver electricity locally from substations to customers are using new technologies to identify problems in development and introduce peak and offlinepeak billing.
Between the two is the transmission grid--
Once a security component of the integrated industry, it now seems to be increasingly overlooked.
In a state where electricity is deregulated--
So far, plus the District of Columbia-
Most utilities are advised to make a choice between generators, transmitters and distributors.
After separating the two, there will be no demand for the grid.
"When it's vertically integrated, it's easier for decision makers to see the demand," says Charles D . "
Gray is an executive director of the National Association of Regulatory Utilities, a member of which is a state regulator.
Previously, he said, a utility company had a power plant here before the regulator, where there were customers, and there was a clear line between the two.
Now utilities will require the construction of lines, the transfer of the power of others to the customers of others, the spread of responsibility and the reduction of the power of the project. James J.
Hoecker, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said some utilities are not in a hurry to increase transmission capacity and will only allow new competitors to bring electricity into their old monopoly.
He said the system would not work well until the professional Transmission Company appeared because of better incentives.
"We need to make this business an attractive one," he said . "
Another complex problem is the nature of the grid. -
It's more like a network of canals than a network of roads.
The power supply does not follow the preset route;
It flows along the path with minimal resistance.
Even before the deregulation, utilities complained that they had to deal with electricity that was wandering from a distant place.
To another area.
But new technologies that can alleviate this problem are gradually disappearing in the laboratory.
This has rarely attracted direct attention from MS.
Clark had a good Friday afternoon.
Demand is around 29,000 MW, well below the peak of 52,200 MW last summer.
But her boss, Philip G.
Harris, president and chief executive of the consortium, believes that,
The long term structural problems of the industry foreshadow difficult days ahead.
He and others believe that companies looking to make money in unregulated areas will seek to build power plants where demand is high.
But that energy rarely spreads to boring transmission.
"In a regulated industry ,"
"The way to improve the bottom line is to reduce costs," Harris said "---
Increasing investment is hardly a solution.
In any case, transmission is a sideline for companies that provide transmission.
This is usually less than 10% of their assets, he said.
"It won't make most executives --Level of attention.
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A version of this article was printed on page 3003010 of the National edition on April 23, 2000 with the title: business;
The kind of moaning you hear comes from the grid.