PG&E customers Check your bill to see if PG&E will put you in the dark

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Check your bill to see if PG&E will put you in the dark BAY CITY NEWS SERVICE

A spokeswoman for PG&E said today that its customers can check the bottom of their power bills to determine if they will be affected by possible rolling blackouts.

The California Independent System Operator said the state's power grid is under an unusual amount of stress today and the only way to prevent a complete shutdown would be to institute blackouts.

PG&E Spokeswoman Jennifer Ramp said a number is written on the bottom of every PG&E power bill. This number designates which power block the customer is in and how they will be affected.

She said PG&E, whose customers range from Bakersfield to the Oregon border, has divided all its customers into 14 power blocks. The first group of people to lose power in the event of rolling blackouts would be Block 3, followed by Block 4 on up to 14.

Customers who do lose power should expect to have it resumed within an hour, Ramp said.

Ramp said the blocks have been designed to affect the smallest number of people possible. Block 3 has approximately 150,000 to 200,000 customers.

Ramp stressed that power users with critical needs, such as hospitals and police stations, are not in any of the 14 blocks and will not be affected by the blackouts.

Mike Healy, a spokesman for BART, said PG&E and the Public Utilities Commission have assured them that BART trains will not be affected by the blackouts today.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/stories_sidebars/pgebill_20010111.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 12, 2001

Answers

Blackouts will not come with warning Filed: 01/12/2001

Here are some questions and answers about rolling blackouts, and what transpired on the energy front Thursday:

Q: What can you expect during a critical power shortage?

A: Failure to reduce customer demand or balance in the electrical load can cause

the entire system to fail. Power companies take several steps to avoid a systemwide failure.

Q: Such as?

A: Public appeals for conservation, rotating power interruptions (rolling blackouts); load shedding.

Q: What are rolling blackouts?

A: If voluntary conservation measures don't help or the situation is too severe, electric companies may be forced to implement rotating power interruptions, or rolling blackouts. These are managed interruptions that last for specified time intervals, usually no more than a few hours.

Q: What was the situation Thursday night?

A: Utilities warned in midafternoon that rolling blackouts were possible across PG&E's and Edison's service area from 5-8 p.m. Groups of circuits or blocks of customers can be picked for short-term power disruption on a rotating basis. That way demand can be reduced, thus lessening the danger of losing the entire system for a much longer time.

Q: How close did we come to blackouts in Bakersfield?

A: Extremely. At 4:30 p.m. yesterday, some experts said there would be a 70 percent probability of local blackouts.

Q: So what happened?

A: The state received "miracle megawatts" from out of state.

Q: Do they announce ahead of time where the power will be shut off?

A: No.

Q: Is there a sequence to the blocks of users that are cut off?

A: Not usually. They can occur randomly in a geographic area.

Q: Are some areas exempt?

A: Electric companies make every effort to minimize disruption to critical services like hospitals.

Q: Does geographic location matter?

A: Power interruptions will occur by circuit or lines — since rotation is based on circuit and not geographic location. It is possible for one side of the street to have power while the other does not.

Q: How long should the blackouts be?

A: An interruption may last 30 to 60 minutes before moving to the next circuit.

Q: And then I would be done with it and could turn my TV back on?

A: Only in severe situations would a customer experience more than one outage due to the rotation.

Q: What about this "load shedding" you mentioned?

A: If a power plant or transmission failure is severe enough, power companies may have to immediately resort to load-shedding to avert a systemwide failure. Load-shedding is an almost instantaneous cutting of power to customers and is only used in extraordinary circumstances.

Q: What should I do during rolling blackouts or load-shedding?

A: If possible, customers should gradually turn major appliances back on following an interruption to prevent further outages. Turn off all electrical equipment, especially air-conditioning appliances when the power fails.

Q: What about my lights?

A: Leave on one or two lights so you will know when power has been restored.

Q: What else should I do?

A: Keep refrigerators and freezers closed as much as possible until power returns. People who have someone in their home who depends on electrically powered medical equipment should always have a backup plan for these type situations, as well as for storms and other events that can disrupt power. Tune in a radio for power updates.

Q: Anything else?

A: Yes. If large equipment is not turned off, when your company tries to turn the system back on, the surge of power trying to restart all that equipment can trip the circuit breaker again, causing delays in power restoration.

Sources: Cleco Corp., Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

http://www.bakersfield.com/oil/Story/273843p-255899c.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 12, 2001.


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