In fact, a shortage of electricity is not a major concern in Western Washington. This is because a substantial amount of electricity is transmitted from Canada to California via Washington and Oregon, therefore providing easy access to external power supplies. Hot weather and increased use often associated with droughts can be a concern for electric utilities, however. Lines sagging into trees and other vegetation is a major concern and therefore loads must be monitored to control sagging. The process of deregulation of the electric utilities industry may increase the number of outages, at least in the short run.
Deregulation allows many parties to act as buyers and sellers.
This makes it difficult to monitor and balance the loads on transmission lines. These types of problems will most likely increase the possibility of regional outages similar to those experienced during the summer of 1996. Growth management is also a constraint which could possibly lead to outages or shortages. Most new development expects access to electricity but does not want to be in close proximity to sub stations. The political difficulty in sighting these sub stations make it difficult for the utility to keep up with regional growth.