Electric Power Problems

Report Outline
Chllenges For Electric Power Industry
Development and Regulation of Utilities
Nuclear Power and Financing Problems

Chllenges For Electric Power Industry

Surge In Consumer Demand For Electricity

A growing shortage of electric power is bewildering the American consumer. Blackouts and periods of restricted power use have been experienced in virtually every part of the country; no longer can a housewife assume she will get current at the mère flick of a switch. Service by electric utilities, generally speaking, has deteriorated because expansion of generating capacity has lagged far behind an unprecedented surge of customer demand.

Four years after the massive Northeast power blackout of November 1965, large private power companies across the country still have not installed the strong interconnections between systems that the Federal Power Commission deems necessary to ensure reliable service. And, in a battle that dates back to the 1920s and 1930s, big private utilities continue to oppose expansion of public power projects. To compound the problem, a number of badly needed new electric generating plants have been held back by construction delays or by public concern lest they damage the environment. Former F.P.C. Chairman Lee C. White has asserted that if obstacles to expansion are not soon removed, rationing of electricity—on either a voluntary or a mandatory basis—may be inevitable.

The national surge in demand for electric power is related both to rapid population growth and to the successful efforts of utilities and appliance manufacturers to promote new uses of electricity. Annual sales of window air conditioners have increased from 2.75 million to almost 5 million, and of central air conditioning units for homes and office buildings from 700,000 to about 1.5 million, since 1964. Sales of dishwashers, garbage disposal units, freezers and other heavy appliances likewise are booming. Although rates for electricity were almost halved between 1942 and 1967, the average annual household electric bill almost tripled during that period.