Power shortage in California affecting Utah

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Deseret News, Friday, December 08, 2000

Power shortage in California affecting Utah

Residents urged not to turn on tree lights until 8 p.m.

Associated Press

FOLSOM, Calif. — California's strained electric grid tapped enormous water pumps for emergency power and was able to avert blackouts, but authorities worry an expected cold snap could push energy demands beyond the system's capacity.

Meanwhile, Utahns are asked to do their part to reduce the cost of power and stress on the interconnected system: Among other things, they should not turn on Christmas lights until 8 p.m. At the same time, residents of the state apparently will get a break next week, avoiding the worst of what had been expected to be a cold snap of epic proportions.

On the Net: National Weather Service

Intellicast

Weather Channel

The Beehive State's concerns were intensified by the failure of one of Utah Power's big generating stations, Hunter No. 1 near Castle Dale, Emery County. The 400-megawatt plant shorted out on Nov. 24, and repairs could take four to six months.

California officials declared a Stage 3 alert Thursday, because as utilities struggled to meet evening demands, the state's electricity reserves dipped to critical levels.

The unprecedented emergency followed hours of increasing stress on California's electricity grid, which has been strapped by cold weather, power plants idled for maintenance and repairs, and dwindling imports. The alert allows operators to obtain emergency power and asks certain customers to curtail usage and warns of the possibility of blackouts.

Officials with California Independent System Operator, which controls the power grid for much of the western United States, said coming days won't get easier.

"The Northwest is also expecting cold weather, and a lot of power we use is from there and won't be coming down here," said Jim McIntosh, director of scheduling for the ISO. "Monday is going to be a really big challenge." He said the ISO could order rotating blackouts. A silver lining for Utah is that a dreaded blast of arctic cold, predicted earlier, is no longer on the weather radar.

"It won't be so cold," said Pete Wilensky, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service forecast office on North Temple. "Our computer models have changed their tune."

Still, temperatures will drop, along with inches of snow, when a storm arrives Sunday. Another impulse should sweep through on Monday, with snowy weather continuing the next two days.

Northern Utahns should expect "five, six days of unsettled weather," Wilensky added.

When a cold spell hits, parts of the country that depend on electric heating have bigger problems with power consumption than Utah has. But Utah, where most homes and businesses use natural gas heating, still is affected.

Increased heating needs throughout the power grid put greater demands on everyone. Electric fans are used to pump hot air from a natural gas furnace throughout a home.

Utah Power purchases some of its energy from the wholesale market, said Dave Eskelsen, spokesman for the utility. Increased demand and lessened supply in California mean Utah Power's energy purchases are more expensive. In September the company filed for permission to track costs for inclusion in a future rate increase request.

"There are quite a number of power plants that are out of service in California." Some were shut down for maintenance, some because of environmental concerns, he said. Up to one-third of the California's generating capacity is off-line.

"That makes the overall availability of power go down and the wholesale price go up," Eskelsen said.

He asked that Utahns try to reduce power usage in the peak demand period, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.; wait until 8 p.m. to turn on Christmas lights; shut off lights and other appliances that are not being used; consider lowering thermostat settings to reduce fan time, and turn off bathroom or kitchen exhaust fans as soon as they've finished their jobs.

Deseret News staff writer Joseph Bauman contributed to this story.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/print/1,1442,230014159,00.html?

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), December 08, 2000


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