During this summer's recent, hot, humid weather, New England has set new records for electricity use.
But instead of overwhelming the region's power grid, some companies across New England actually lowered their demand.
They take advantage of a program that pays them to cut their power.
New Hampshire Public Radio's David Darman has more.
On Wednesday, August 2nd, New England used more electricity than during any other single day in history.
Officials at I-S-O New England say the demand strained the regional power grid.
And when that happens, says spokesman Ken McDonnell, the I-S-O puts out word its time to reduce demand.
we can count on between four and five hundred megawatts of relief, that is less use of the power supplies in those situations which helps us avoid further stress on the system and the possibility of blackouts.
The I-S-O calls its program "Demand Response".
On August 2nd, it succeeded in lowering demand by 480 megawatts,
That's equivalent to the electricity generated by the PSNH power plant in Bow at full capacity.
Most of the firms participating in the program are in Connecticut.
There, state officials have made it a priority to cut demand.
In fact, the state gives the I-S-0 money to pay companies to cut power.
One firm taking advantage of the program is Ward Leonard Electronics Company in Thomaston.
Nathan McClellan oversees the factory, and says when he gets word, he switches some equipment over to a generator.
compressors are an automatic thing our air compressor, that automatically goes down. that uses 70kw and we go right over onto diesel gen set outside immediatly with that. there's 70 kw right there.
I-S-O New England operates this program though a system of middlemen.
For example, the Boston based Enernoc has recruited abut 100 companies to take part.
And every time I-S-O calls on Enernoc, its companies save about 200 megawatts.
Enernoc's Tim Healy says his company pays clients as much as 500 dollars per megawatt saved.
But he says that's often not enough to convince many businesses to turn off lights and machinery.
its just a matter of getting familiar with what it is, overcoming normal objections, the normal objections of geez, i don't want to be called too many hours to curtail my electricity usage or this is unfamiliar to me or are you sure everyone else is doing it.....
Healy says every consumer in the region ought to hope that enough companies sign on because everyone depends on the same energy grid.
But very few New Hampshire companies take part in the program.
That's because reducing demand here is not critical to the network.
And Martin Murray of Public Service of New Hampshire, points out a problem in Boston can easily take down areas of the grid far from the city.
...if demand was not dampened enough, iso may have to implement an involuntary blackout call. its called "shedding load". they would ask control centers in each of the six new england states to reduce by x percentage. and that would impact every new england state, not just mass the area of boston, but nh and all the new england states.
Federal and state regulators say electric demand in New England is increasing about 3 percent a year.
Because of this growing demand, regulators have estimated the region needs several new power plants to come on line in the next few years, especially in Connecticut and Greater Boston.
But a plan approved by federal regulators allows significantly fewer plants to be constructed than once thought.
That's because the plan includes a program like the one ISO New England now operates to lower electricity demand when power use is greatest.
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