12:46 16Jan2004 RTRS-New England may suffer rolling blackouts due to freeze

NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Warning of possible rolling blackouts, New
England's power companies urged their customers to conserve electricity
through Friday as subfreezing temperatures hiked demand for energy.
Western Massachusetts Electric Co., which serves 200,000 customers, said
natural gas supply to electric generators was becoming strained, according
to the New England grid operator.
"Should the natural gas supply to a generator be disrupted, that
generator's ability to provide electricity for the regional grid is
diminished," the Massachusetts utility said in a statement released
Thursday.
"The potential exists for a disruption in the supply of electricity for
customers throughout New England," it warned.
As a precaution, Western Massachusetts said it was preparing for
possible rotating blackouts, which is the temporary termination of
electricity to customers when demand exceeds supply.
This disruption would be done only in extreme circumstances, the utility
emphasized. It would be conducted in a controled manner in a limited area,
10 percent of its customers at most, to protect the regional grid.
Western Massachusetts is a unit of Northeast Utilities Co. NU.N, New
England's biggest energy holding company, which also owns Connecticut Light
and Power (CL&P) and Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH).
All of the Northeast Utilities distribution companies urged customers to
conserve power, but only Western Massachusetts posted the warning of
possible rolling blackouts on its web site.
At 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT), Connecticut Light said on its web site that
fewer than 100 customers out of its 1.1 million were without power.
Western Massachusetts had just one customer without power at 6 a.m.
Data on outages for PSNH's 450,000 customers in New Hampshire was not
available on the site.
Officials at the distribution companies and Northeast utilities were not
immediately available for comment.

Friday, 16 January 2004 12:46:36RTRS [nN16420376] {EN}ENDS