LES prepares for summertime difficulties

The warm weather may bring some challenges, but LES officials say they're prepared to handle them.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The North American Electric Reliability Corporation is warning that there could be widespread reliability problems during peak energy use periods this summer.

Lincoln Electric System is paying close attention to that, which is why it thinks it’s prepared.

One problem NERC is watching out for this summer is dips in hydroelectric power and other power generators that use river water for cooling.

“With the limited number of generators that are right on the river, if for some reason, there were reduced output from some of those thermal plants, then there’s other generation across the footprint that’s not sitting on the river that would be able to ramp up its generation and be able to meet capacity needs for the footprint,” said Jason Fortik, vice president of the LES power supply division.

LES doesn’t stand alone. There’s a substantial amount of redundancy built into the multistate network of the Southwest Power Pool.

“If we are able to help in the SPP region, we’ll do what we can to help and use those limited interties to transfer power to them if they were to need something,” Fortik said. “The converse is true. They would try to help out our area if something were to happen that we could lean on them for a little bit of help.”

Of course, things do get a bit strained during the hottest days of the year, so there is plenty you can do at home as well.

“Set your thermostat a little bit higher so that you’re not using as much electricity during those peak times of the day,” Fortik said. “If you have curtains or blinds or anything on the south and the west sides of your house, close those. Try to keep the heat load from coming into the area.”

Also, keep your doors and windows closed, and consider flipping on a fan or two to keep air moving.

If you can take all of those little steps, you could see some energy savings and some cost savings, too.