Jun 21 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Peter J. Howe The Boston Globe

Even as he kicked off a major energy conservation campaign, New England's top electric grid official said yesterday that there should not be any power shortages this summer, even on the hottest days.

"We will have enough capacity available to us, barring unforeseen circumstances," Gordon van Welie, chief executive of Independent System Operator New England, said at a Boston event kicking off the "Take Charge New England" campaign.

"There are never absolute guarantees, but I think we'll be OK this summer," said van Welie, who heads the Holyoke-based organization that runs the six-state power grid and wholesale electric markets.

He was joined at the Boston Harbor Hotel by political, business, and environmental leaders to launch the campaign, which is aimed at getting businesses and homeowners to conserve electricity, particularly on summer afternoons when power demand soars for air conditioning and refrigeration.

Because electricity demand keeps climbing in New England by roughly 2 percent annually while construction of new power plants has fallen to a near standstill, energy officials have repeatedly voiced fears the region could face rolling blackouts as soon as two summers from now, when demand exceeds supply.

Asked whether stronger conservation efforts could stave off a crisis for months or years, van Welie said, "We don't know yet."

Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, a Lexington nonprofit group, projects that New England could not only curb growth in electric demand through conservation, but could actually reduce it annually through 2013 and beyond -- at a price far less than that of generating new electricity.

Strategies such as imposing more efficient building codes and standards for appliances and air conditioning, along with drastically improved efforts to get businesses and homeowners to use more efficient light bulbs, could cut average annual demand by 1.4 percent annually and peak summer demand by 2.1 percent for the next decade, said Jim O'Reilly, a group spokesman.

"Energy conservation and efficiency must come first," said James W. Hunt III, chief energy and environment aide to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, whose administration has taken steps such as installing more efficient light-emitting diodes instead of light bulbs in 8,000 city traffic signals.

Angela M. O'Connor, president of the New England Power Generators Association, a trade group, said her organization backs conservation and efforts to reduce electricity demand. But claims that New England could actually cut power use "have to be taken with a grain of salt," she said.

Despite $120 million in annual funding for conservation from Massachusetts utilities, electric demand keeps rising here, O'Connor said. Because getting power plants approved, funded, and built takes years, regional officials need to move now to prevent catastrophic recurring blackouts, she said.