A power outage similar to the ones that have occurred in the western United States twice in the past several weeks is unlikely to happen here, according to Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.

"The characteristics of our regional electrical system are very different from those in the West," said John Sipics, PP&L's general manager-Power Systems Support. "That makes it much less likely for a similar large-scale outage to happen here."

In the West, he noted, many plants where electricity is generated are located long distances from customers. Electricity is carried by transmission lines hundreds of miles to reach the customer.

"As a result of the system characteristics, loss of facilities can cause automatic devices that are in place to match customers' demand for electricity with the amount produced to shut off the power to groups of customers," Sipics said.

"Here in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection that PP&L belongs to, the regional electrical system is more concentrated," he added. "The generating facilities are located closer to where the customers are.

"Also, the generating facilities are more dispersed throughout the region, rather than being concentrated in a few locations as they are in the West."

Even with a move to a more competitive electricity market, the reliability of the system here should remain high, he said. "The restructuring changes proposed for PJM to prepare for competition place a high priority on system reliability."