New York Times: Electricity use is up sharply this summer, but in a windowless room near Albany that is the nerve center of New York State’s grid, controllers have noticed that something else is not rising: peak load. Peak load is the single hour of highest use in the course of the year, a condition for which the electric system is designed and which is the focus of utilities’ operating strategies and, sometimes, prayers. Driven by each new air-conditioner, computer and flat-screen television, peak …