A mid-July heat wave saw New York State set a new record for single-day demand for electricity and, in the process, refocus attention on New York's widely recognized need to increase its electricity-generating capacity.
On Monday, July 17, New Yorkers' hourly average peak load reached 32,624 megawatts, breaking a record of 32,075 set last summer, said Jim Smith, a spokesman for the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), a non-profit entity charged with overseeing New York's electricity markets and transmission systems. In fact, average peak demand exceeded the record set in 2005 in three consecutive hours.
Before 2005, New York had not set a new record in demand in four years, he added.
On July 18, New York would have broken the record again, but NYISO triggered a series of "demand-response program." In these programs, businesses and other large employers that have previously agreed to participate in these programs receive incentives to voluntarily reduce their energy usage.
Smith said NYISO had predicted a new record in demand this summer—not because of weather, but because of increasing demand for electricity. "More people are using more electricity for more things," he said. "Everything plugs in now."
In a release announcing the new record demand for electricity, NYISO renewed its long-standing call for a reinstatement of New York's Article X power-plant siting law. That law, which expired in December of 2002, outlined a streamlined process for the review, approval, and siting of new electricity-generation facilities.
The Public Policy Institute, the research affiliate of The Business Council, argued in a landmark 2002 report, The Power to Grow, that concluded that New York State needs some 9,200 additional megawatts of power to meet three key needs: fostering economic growth, keeping New York's electricity system reliable, and generating the robust competition that is New York's best long-term hope for driving electricity costs down.
The need for more electricity-generating capacity has also been emphasized in the state Energy Plan and by the Independent Power Producers of New York State, the state Public Service Commission (PSC), state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and Alfred Kahn, the noted economist and former chairman of the PSC.