Hydropower in supply in dry zones
Aug 10 - USA TODAY
The drought worsened this week in the Midwest and the Plains, but the
region's hydroelectric power has not diminished because abundant 2011
rain and snow filled reservoirs.
Nearly a quarter of the United States is enduring "extreme" to
"exceptional" drought, according to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor
released Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center. That's the
highest percentage in those categories since record-keeping began in
2000. The entire states of Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri,
Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Colorado are in drought.
But hydroelectric power generated by six big dams on the Missouri
River in the Dakotas and Montana was 12% above normal, providing enough
electricity in July to power 90,000 homes for a year, says Mike Swenson,
Missouri River power production team leader for the U.S. Corps of
Engineers in Omaha.
The corps increased flow out of the dams to maintain enough water for
navigation on the river from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota to where
the Missouri joins the Mississippi River at St. Louis, and the higher
flows led to increased power production, he says.
"If it continues to be dry like this into the fall, then once we get
into the next year, we will start to see some reductions," he says.
Buck Feist, a spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation's Great Plains
regional office, which oversees 79 reservoirs and 20 hydroelectric
plants in nine states from Texas to Canada, says "reservoirs are working
pretty much as they were designed -- to store water to see you through
these drought areas."
Overall demand for U.S. electricity did not hit an all-time high in
July, despite temperatures that made it the hottest month on record in
the USA. That's largely because of conservation practices and a soft
economy, Edison Electric Institute spokesman Jim Owen says.
"Power demands are always higher in the summer when it is hot," he
says, but "demand has been a little bit soft overall for the last couple
of years for one basic, fundamental reason: Even though the economy has
improved a little bit, it is still a little soft around the edges."
Peak demand so far in 2012 for the nine states that are all or
partially served by the Little Rock-based Southwest Power Pool (SPP) was
53,690 megawatts on July 31, more than 1,000 megawatts below the Aug 2,
2011, peak.
SPP spokesman Pete Hoelscher says that power company officials are
closely monitoring river levels for hydropower impact. If the heat
persists, he says, demand for power could surge later this month when
schools begin classes.
(c) Copyright 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
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