THE NEW ENGLAND power grid experienced a transmission outage at 6 p.m. Wednesday night and dealt with the electricity shortage by tapping resources it keeps on standby to deal with such events.
The grid operator, ISO New England, said the transmission outage caused a significant decline in electricity imports from Canada at a time when consumer demand in the region was slightly higher than expected.
“This combination left the region short of the resources required to meet consumer demand and required operating reserves,” the grid operator said in a statement.
Operating reserves are typically power plants that can come online in 20 to 30 minutes. The additional power, combined with lowering demand for electricity as the night wore on, allowed the grid to continue operating without asking consumers to curtail their electricity usage. The emergency, dubbed a Level 1 alert, was resolved by 10 p.m., the grid operator said.
ISO New England said the Wednesday night emergency was not a major problem, but the grid operator has been raising concerns for a number of years about the adequacy and reliability of power supplies, particularly during the winter months.