Members of Maryland’s Public Service Commission on Friday joined its counterparts from neighboring states for a summit with the operator of the region’s electricity grid, a meeting aimed at preventing blackouts as soon as 2011.
PSC Chairman Douglas Nazarian said he hoped the daylong meeting at the BWI Hilton in Linthicum would be the start of an ongoing conversation between the commissions and PJM Interconnection, which operates the electricity grid including Maryland, Washington, D.C., and 12 other states.
Earlier this year, the PSC said brownouts or rolling blackouts could be occur in 2011 and 2012 if additional electricity generation is not brought online. Nazarian said the meeting was intended in part to make sure that Marylanders do not bear the burden of solving the problem.
“I think we became convinced a while ago that we can’t address these problems alone,” Nazarian said during the meeting. “We have to err on the side of action. There are certain things we can do easily, certain things that are harder, more expensive, more risky.”
The summit came a day after the PSC issued an order requiring Maryland utilities, including Baltimore Gas and Electric, to procure additional resources to meet the grid’s emergency needs. Plans for that procurement, known as “Gap Requests for Proposals,” are due to the commission by Dec. 1.
In both its order and during Friday’s meeting, the PSC emphasized an urgent need to address the predicted shortfall.
“The year 2011 sounds a long way off, but in the world of electricity it’s not,” Commission Executive Secretary Terry Romine wrote in the PSC’s order to the utilities. “A failure to address 2011’s or 2012’s shortfalls now is, for all intents and purposes, a conscious decision not to act.”
PJM representatives said a mild summer brought a lower demand for electricity than the last few years, with the peak demand day coming on June 9, rather than in late July or early August.
However, they said a big problem still exists, and the cool weather can’t be counted on every year. The grid operator will seek information from each state commission to help improve its projections of electricity demand and work with them on regional solutions, said Steve Herling, PJM vice president of planning.
“I can’t tell you if New Jersey would focus on that, Maryland would focus on this, we’d be better off,” he said. “I think the system as a whole needs a better balance.”
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