By David A. Fahrenthold and Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 3, 2006

The agency that coordinates power distribution across the mid-Atlantic took emergency steps yesterday to try to reduce the demand for electricity, as the third day of a punishing heat wave triggered fears that the grid was being strained to its limit.

Temperatures reached 100 degrees in parts of the Washington area yesterday, and the combination of heat and humidity created a heat index that topped 110 in some spots. Similar highs and more humidity are predicted for today.

There were small bits of good news: The high temperatures at Reagan National, Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall airports did not quite set the records that had been predicted. And an unexpected breeze blew away enough smog that the region dodged a Code Red pollution alert.

But the prevailing story was wilting, smothering heat -- heat so unbearable that, as people from Washington to Boston sought to escape it, they put record-breaking loads on the region's power infrastructure.

"We expect to be really pushing the limit of what's available, in terms of usage," said Ray E. Dotter, spokesman for PJM Interconnection, which handles power distribution for 51 million people in the District and in Maryland, Virginia and 11 other states. Yesterday, power usage in the network exceeded the record it had set the day before, of 144,000 megawatts.

In response, the network directed its utilities to activate programs in which certain large customers, in exchange for rate discounts, agree to curtail energy use during periods of high demand. Not all of the utilities in the PJM network have such programs, but the agency said every bit would help.

"We want more of a cushion than what we see we're going to have," Dotter said, noting that usage was uncomfortably close to his network's theoretical capacity of 164,994 megawatts. "You want to have a cushion there to cover something going wrong."

Power was a particular concern in New York, where LaGuardia Airport hit 100 degrees and Con Edison demand nearly reached the record set Tuesday.

Conservation measures in the city changed the look of some city landmarks -- lights on bridges and the Empire State Building were kept dark, and the Nasdaq stock exchange turned off its seven-story electronic sign in Times Square. But all that apparently wasn't enough: By evening, scattered power outages were reported in all five city boroughs.

In this area, both Pepco and Baltimore Gas and Electric broke their records for electricity demand, both of which had been set Tuesday. "Everybody's on edge," Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin said. Dominion Virginia Power, which serves much of Northern Virginia, would not know its usage numbers until today, a spokesman said.

Late last night, Pepco reported that about 6,000 homes in its service area had lost power, with 3,850 in the District and most of the rest in Montgomery County.

In response to a directive from the PJM network, Dominion activated a voluntary program that requires participating commercial customers to cut consumption when the grid is under stress in exchange for a rate discount, a Dominion spokesman said.

A spokesman for Pepco, which has a similar program, said the program was not activated yesterday because the utility company was not asked to do so. A spokeswoman for BGE, which serves Howard and Anne Arundel counties and parts of Prince George's, said she could not immediately determine whether that company has such a program.

The problem, as it had been all week, was an enormous mass of hot air that originated in the West and has drifted eastward over the past few days. Daily temperature records have been set in at least 80 cities.

"This thing has affected all 48 states at one time or another," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "That's an impressive heat wave."

Yesterday, with part of the air mass settled over Washington, temperatures reached 99 degrees at National Airport and at BWI, missing the Aug. 2 record of 100 in both places. It was 97 at Dulles, also missing that airport's high of 99. The highest temperatures recorded by the Weather Service were in outlying areas: 100 in Fredericksburg and Leonardtown.

The heat meant an unusually high volume of calls for firefighters and rescue workers. Among the worst cases in the District was a man in his seventies who was found suffering from heatstroke about 1 p.m. at Sixth and I streets NW. Passersby found him outside in the sun and took him inside to a doctor's office, where staff called 911, officials said.

The man was treated and taken to Howard University Hospital, where fire department spokesman Alan Etter said he was in serious condition.

The heat caused some government buildings to open up as "cooling centers" across the area, and caused others to close: the District's central Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library shut at noon because it was too hot inside.

Heat restrictions slowed trains on Virginia Railway Express's Fredericksburg Line, on all three MARC lines and during yesterday's afternoon rush on Metrorail. Metro officials warned customers to expect delays and crowded trains this week.

It also wilted one of official Washington's starchiest traditions, as K Street's Prime Rib restaurant temporarily allowed "business casual" attire at lunch. That change, made for just the second time in the restaurant's history, ended at 5 p.m., a manager said -- when the dress code went back to jacket and tie.

Outside, people sought relief wherever they could. At the University of Maryland, the campus was sunbaked and nearly empty, the biggest crowd gathered around the swimming pool. At a campground in Greenbelt, a group of Boy Scouts from Wisconsin made do with bags of ice and shade.

"There is always a breeze under a tall tree," said Major F. Horsey, a park ranger.

One boon to those outdoors was that the air wasn't quite as dangerous as officials had feared. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments had predicted that the sun would cook fumes from gasoline engines, power plant emissions and other pollution to create high levels of ground-level ozone, a gas that is harmful to breathe.

They were predicting a Code Red day, especially hazardous. But then, officials said, a breeze came up from the west-northwest and blew some of the ozone away.

That meant that yesterday was a Code Orange day -- bad but not particularly unusual in a region that has been missing federal air-quality standards since 1977. There had been 10 previous Code Orange days this year, plus one Code Red last month and another day with even worse problems, a Code Purple. The situation has left environmental groups angry that more is not being done.

"It has been years of foot-dragging," Ed Hopkins of the Sierra Club said yesterday. "It's very disappointing that we've had to get to this point, where people are breathing this terrible air now."

The forecast for today? Not much better, according to Weather Service meteorologist John Darnley.

He said that, as a cold front nears the area, the result could be weather that is more humid but not appreciably cooler.

"You'll feel a little bit more uncomfortable," Darnley said.

Staff writers Michelle Garcia, Hamil R. Harris, Allison Klein, Tom Sietsema and Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.