The Itaipú Dam, completed in 1984, has the world's second largest power-generating capacity: 13.3 gigawatts.

Ms. Biedrzycki said she believed that state officials had inflated power-generating capacity and could face problems of increasing demand in a few years.

With its controversial, half-finished nuclear power plant abandoned for the moment, the nation is already operating beyond its power-generating capacity.

The design of the reactor made it inherently unstable, since at certain moments its power-generating capacity exceeded the ability of the graphite control rods to slow the reaction.

Up to $350 million could be saved over 10 years through deferred capital expenses to build new power-generating capacity, mostly needed by the San Diego utility, he said.

It has far more cars than any other sub-Saharan African country, and far more power-generating and industrial capacity.

With power-generating capacity failing to keep pace with demand, and occasional blackouts, even oil-rich Kuwait is seriously contemplating programmes to conserve energy.

The grid collapsed here even though New York - unlike other states, like California - has enough power-generating capacity to satisfy its own demands without any outside help.

In mid-2004, Iraq had an estimated 5,000 megawatts of power-generating capacity, compared with 7,500 megawatts of demand.

Analysts like Jeff Dietert of Simmons & Company in Houston had expected about 150,000 megawatts of power-generating capacity to be added nationwide from this year to 2005.