Special Report: Rolling blackouts

Five years ago, rolling blackouts in California caused chaos. Traffic lights didn't work, cars crashed, and people were stuck in elevators.

Bonnie, a Boston resident who survived the California Blackouts, said "It's awful. You can't get up in the morning, because your alarm is turned off, and your late for work, your late for everything. Your refrigerator is turned off, your food goes bad, it's terrible."

Now, if the weather turns colder this winter, managers of New England's electric grid say we could be in for the same.

Dominic Slowey, spokesperson for ISO New England, the region?s electricity manager, says, "We might have to initiate what are called rolling blackouts, which are really controlled power outages."

These blackouts will be announced and will last no longer than an hour. But they could cause their share of headaches.

Bonnie from Boston says, "It would be horrible, so much of the city relies on electricity."

Ryan from Boston adds, "I hope that they plan it out, because it could be a big mess. I don't want to see that."

Furnaces might not operate, freezers will start defrosting, and everything that is powered by electricity will stop working.

Slowey says, "It's a situation where we might not have energy resources available to us that we would need to keep the lights on."

Slowey also says everyone must do their part, and conserve.

"Every one can pitch in - even small things you do in your offices and homes, when you multiply it by 6 million electric customers, really adds up."

For the long-term, experts say new England needs more power sources- such as wind, solar, biofuel, even nuclear. For more information, log on to whdh.com and click on special assignments.

ISO New England

The latest oil industry/energy news

Cutting edge energy discussions can be found here.

(Copyright (c) 2005 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)