Jun 20 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Peter J. Howe The Boston Globe

Facing worsening strains on New England electric supplies, regional power grid officials today plan to kick off a huge publicity campaign urging residents and businesses to conserve power during periods of peak demand like hot summer afternoons.

Dubbed "Take Charge," the campaign will be promoted on 30 Clear Channel Communications billboards in Massachusetts and Connecticut and in up to 500 television advertising spots a month on cable provider RCN Corp., which serves parts of Boston and 14 suburbs. The Lowe's home-improvement store chain will also offer free brochures and refrigerator magnets touting energy-saving tips.

In a worst-case scenario, parts of New England could face Third World-style rolling blackouts in coming summers if demand for electricity -- particularly for air conditioning and refrigeration -- exceeds available supplies. Following a glut of power-plant construction in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before many power companies went bankrupt, virtually no new power plants have come on line in the last two years. No big plants, aside from the controversy-mired 130-tower Cape Wind proposal in Nantucket Sound, are being pursued, and demand continues to grow steadily, roughly 1.9 percent annually during the last five years.

In addition to staving off the blackouts, small reductions in electric demand could have a major effect on long-term prices. If New Englanders reduce electric demand by 5 percent during the few hundred hours of the summer when demand peaks, wholesale electric costs could drop by $600 million annually, or roughly 6 percent, according to Independent System Operator-New England, the Holyoke organization that runs the six-state power grid and wholesale electric markets.

On the other hand, if electric demand grows by 5 percent over normal summer peak levels, wholesale costs could jump $700 million annually, ISO-New England officials estimate.

Among other groups that plan to promote the ISO energy conservation program are Associated Industries of Massachusetts, which represents more than 7,000 businesses and employers; the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce; Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, a nonprofit industry group; and the Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston environmental group that has been urging policymakers to also focus on the benefits of conservation and demand-reduction as they work for construction of new power plants.

Meanwhile, Clear Channel donated the billboard space and RCN the air time to help advertise the "Take Charge" plan.

The ISO campaign is focusing on two areas -- metropolitan Boston and suburbs to the north and west, and Fairfield County in southwestern Connecticut -- that face the most severe problems of "electric congestion," or inadequate high-voltage electric lines to bring in power from elsewhere in the region. As a result, both areas are more reliant on premium-priced local power plants, such as the natural-gas-powered Mystic plants in Everett, because they have limited access to cheaper power generated in Rhode Island or other parts of New England.

In an excerpt from remarks prepared for a press conference at the Boston Harbor Hotel, ISO New England chief executive Gordon van Welie said New England has long struggled with the fact that almost all its energy resources come from far away.

"What I am doing today is calling on another local resource I know to help address the situation we are in. The resource I refer to has been undervalued and underdeveloped for too long. This resource is, quite simply: You. That is, every resident and business that uses electricity," van Welie said.

His group will ask New Englanders to "Take Charge" of the energy they use and subscribe to simple, practical efficiency measures that can create savings -- not only energy savings, but savings for the consumer's bottom line."