Pennsylvania electric grid in need of a tuneup

Pennsylvania's electrical transmission grid is reliable but in need of some fine-tuning, and isn't immune to future blackouts like the one that darkened much of the Northeast last summer, according to testimony from the chairman of the state's Public Utility Commission.

There is no perfect electrical generation and delivery system, said PUC Chairman Terrance Fitzgerald, which is why "we need to do everything we reasonably can to prevent [blackouts]," despite the system's overall clean bill of health.

He offered his testimony recently at a Senate consumer protection hearing on blackout prevention and electric service reliability.

Though Pennsylvania's grid is by and large reliable, the PUC this year has opened separate investigations into the service quality offered by the Metropolitan Edison Co., Pennsylvania Power Co. and the Pennsylvania Electric Co., all of which are owned by Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp., Fitzgerald said.

The ongoing probe will investigate the number and duration of power outages to determine whether FirstEnergy met the PUC's reliability standards.

In November, a joint U.S.-Canadian task force concluded that FirstEnergy was mostly to blame for the August blackout.

Public evidentiary hearings related to the PUC probe are still in progress.

The recent Senate hearing came just a week after the same joint task force released its second-phase recommendations for improving electricity transmission in North America. One of the recommendations calls for greater regional cooperation among electric companies, an area where Pennsylvania is ahead of the game, thanks to PJM Interconnection, a Valley Forge-based regional transmission group.

PJM brokers electricity transactions and runs power grids operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere.

Frank Koza, a manager with PJM, said it's his firm's responsibility to "balance supply second by second" and forecast daily demand.

"Regional planning is essential," Koza said.

Pennsylvania, especially the southwestern part of the state, also has a dense supply of high-voltage transmission lines, meaning the grid isn't as easily overloaded on hot, high-use days.

On the whole, he said, long-range investment into transmission infrastructure -- power lines, transformer substations, computer control centers -- is prudent, but a total overhaul on Pennsylvania's distribution grid is unnecessary.

Some disagree with the more rosy diagnosis, including Nora Mead Brownell, who sits on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and is a former PUC board member. She says since 1992, when a federal energy restructuring law was passed, there's been precious little investment in new transmission lines across the United States and in Pennsylvania.

Those lines may hold up for now, but "are not capable of supporting a digital economy over a long period of time," Brownell said.