Associated Press
Tuesday, August 8, 2006

The urban centers from Northern Virginia to New York "face unparalleled problems" meeting electricity demand, an Energy Department report warns, but such remote areas as Montana and the Dakotas may also need new transmission lines in the near future.

The grid-congestion report to be released today is a first step toward the government proposing electricity-transmission corridors later this year to try to ease bottlenecks and avoid blackouts.

A copy of the report was provided to the Associated Press late yesterday.

Congress ordered the congestion analysis last year when, for the first time, it gave the federal government a greater say in deciding where high-priority transmission lines are needed. If states and regional groups fail to build the lines, the federal government could order them built.

"This study identifies the most critical areas of congestion," said Kevin Kolevar, director of the Energy Department's office dealing with electricity reliability issues.

Along with the Washington-to-New York corridor and Southern California, the report identifies four other areas where emerging grid congestion problems are of serious concern and new power lines will be needed: New England, the Phoenix-to-Tucson area in Arizona; the Seattle-to-Portland area in the Pacific Northwest, and the San Francisco Bay area.