Capacitors help maintain voltage levels during peak power demands.
It's been warmer than ever in much of this country so far this year, and another long, hot summer seems a given in the Tennessee Valley and elsewhere. In early May, unseasonable 90-degree temperatures already had utilities in the East asking customers to cut back on power use. Rolling blackouts were threatened. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has already said there will be outages and brownouts around the country this summer as demand overwhelms supply. And on those occasions, what supply there is will be expensive.