Transmission Outage Limits Power to Northern California

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California Independent System Operator FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Patrick Dorinson December 19, 2000 Director of Communications 1 (888) 516-NEWS CALIFORNIA ISO ISSUES STAGE TWO ELECTRICAL EMERGENCY Transmission Outage Limits Power to Northern California (Folsom, CA) The California Independent System Operator (California ISO) declared a Stage Two Electrical Emergency today, Tuesday, December 19, 2000, after the loss of one of the state’s major transmission lines. The Midway-Vincent line #3, a 500-kilowatt line had to be taken out of service due to arching at the Vincent Substation. This line is part of Path 15, a group of high-voltage power lines that feed electricity back and forth between Northern and Southern California. For more than a week now, ISO operators have been dealing with path congestion that occurs on Path 15 when demand in Northern California draws generation supply from the southern end of the state. Today’s line outage limits the flow of electricity to only 650 MW from Southern to Northern California. The Stage Two Electrical Emergency is in effect from 9:15 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. this evening. Demand across the California ISO Control Area is expected to peak at 33,307 megawatts around 6:00 p.m. tonight. At this time, California ISO will attempt to maintain stability of transmission system without activating voluntary load management programs. However, the California ISO may implement interruptible programs if reserves dip to lower levels. The ISO urges interruptible customers to wait to shed their contracted electrical load until specified to do so by their local utility.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), December 19, 2000

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