November 14, 2001—Near-term (2001-2005) power generation adequacy is deemed satisfactory throughout most of North America, provided new generating facilities are constructed as anticipated, according to the Reliability Assessment 2001-2010 report, released by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) in late October.
The report finds that projected near-term, NERC-wide capacity margins continue to show increases over projections from previous years, peaking at more than 20 percent in 2004. Although electricity demand is expected to grow by about 63,800 megawatts in the near term, new resource additions totaling from about 138,000 to 245,000 megawatts are projected over the same period depending upon the number of merchant plants assumed to be in service. However, power supplies in California and in New York City and Long Island are predicted to be tight in the next couple of years.
Although the country will have plenty of power plants over the next five years, the report says, plants may have trouble delivering their power to consumers. Demand growth, new generation additions, and the increasing number of energy transactions continue to outstrip the proposed expansion of transmission systems. Only 7,276 miles of new transmission operated at 230 kilovolts and above are proposed to be added in the near term.
For the full report, visit the NERC Web site.
