Heard warnings about brown-outs or black-outs this summer?

“This could give the general impression the whole country could experience outages,” said energy expert Jim Clarkson of Columbia.

That’s not so for Lexington County and the rest of South Carolina.

“The anticipated problems are for areas that have a higher dependence on renewables, namely New England, Texas and California,” said Clarkson, CEO of Resource Supply Management.

Nation-wide electricity generation is plentiful and the delivery system is constantly being upgraded, he said.

Clarkson’s company advises businesses and other large power users on controlling costs and efficient use of energy.

He advises business owners and managers concerned about power outages to cut back demand for critical hours. This reduces the system’s needs that are difficult to meet in extreme hot weather.

That’s good advice for home owners, too.

Lower demand drives down sales revenues. This forces electric utilities such as Dominion Energy in Lexington County to look at other services to gain new revenue.

To business customers, Clarkson said, utilities will:

• Install and maintain electrical equipment.

• Promote electric vehicle charging.