The provincially owned local utility then built two coal-burning generating stations alongside new mines.

In some cases, it may even pay utilities to subsidize customer conservation rather than build cleaner plants or buy the right to pollute from someone else.

To respond to high peak demand, utilities build very capital-intensive power plants and lines.

Formerly, the grid was adequate because an integrated utility would build a power plant and the lines necessary to connect the plant to its customers.

The for-profit industry's demand for monetary incentives to coax utilities to build and repair their transmission grid is the most divisive.

Other utilities have built temporary storage in steel or concrete casks, but building those here would require action by the State Legislature, which is balking.

The Concord station is the first of nine that the utility, based in San Francisco, will build this year, with seven open to the public.

With greater capacity, superconducting cables could allow utilities to build in more buffers to handle unexpected failures, experts say.

And utilities must build new plants to meet demand on the peak days, even if the equipment sits idle most of the year.

Any utility could build a gas plant for far cheaper, he was told, and sell the electricity at a lower rate.