The agency that oversees New York State's electricity grid says there should be enough power to avoid any blackouts this summer.

The last major blackout in New York occured in 2003, when the entire Northeast lost power.New York Independent System Operator President Stephen Whitley said new energy resources and better interstate transmission lines should help the Empire State meet its predicted summer needs. 

NYISO forecasts that New York's summer 2012 peak demand will reach 33,295 megawatts. That forecast is 1.7 percent (570 MW) lower than the 2011 summer peak of 33,865 MW and nearly 1.9 percent (644 MW) lower than the record system peak of 33,939 MW recorded on August 2, 2006.

If Long Island is any indication, there may be a trend of lower demand emerging. The Long Island Power Authority reported that its residential customers used 10 percent less energy than expected for the first four months of 2012.

Nonetheless, New York needs to do a lot of work to modernize its electricity transmission grid, particularly if we are to bring more clean-energy sources online. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is aggressively pursuing his "energy highway" concept to connect upstate energy plants with downstate population centers. The lack of transmission lines between upstate wind farms and the New York City region has hindered the development of more wind energy in our state.