California still on energy alert but sees improvement

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Calif. still on energy alert but sees improvement

By James Jelter SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Californians awoke on Friday to dire warnings that they are still dangerously low on electricity and could face a third day of blackouts, though there were glimmers of hope that power outages could be avoided.

"Things are still very tight. Loads (on the grid) are trending a little lower than yesterday but are still very difficult," Patrick Dorinson, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator (ISO), said.

The ISO, which manages the flow of electricity over most of California's high-voltage transmission lines, extended its so-called "Stage Three" alert through midnight Friday, the fourth straight day the state has been put on this highest rung of the three-level power emergency alerts.

The root of the problem is California's failure to build new power plants to keep pace with the needs of its rapidly growing population and strong, technology-led economy, which have made it the nation's most populous and richest state.

California's severe electricity shortage prompted the ISO to order statewide rolling blackouts on Wednesday and again Thursday, the first time such drastic steps have been needed.

Blackouts ease the strain on the grid by rotating power cuts among blocks of customers for up to 90 minutes at a time, avoiding overloading the system and triggering uncontrolled and far-more-widespread outages.

So far the cuts have been confined to cities and towns in northern and central California, but officials caution that Southern California would not be immune if the shortages worsened.

EASING LOADS

Reasons for guarded optimism that California might get through Friday without more blackouts rest with a warming trend in the state, easing electric heating demand, and the typical drop in power use as schools, offices and factories shut for the weekend.

But Dorinson said there remained an urgent need to conserve electricity and cautioned that the loss of just one power plant could again threaten to topple the grid.

The ISO predicted load on the grid would peak Friday at 29,695 megawatts, down from its 30,798-megawatt estimate for Thursday. One megawatt serves about 1,000 homes.

A big power plant did trip off line overnight in Montana, raising concerns that supplies would be tighter than earlier hoped for Friday.

Power from big coal-fired plants in Montana feed electrical systems throughout the western states. Washington and Oregon, like California, also face shortages and soaring wholesale power prices as utilities throughout the region compete for scare megawatts needed to supply their customers.

Wholesale prices for electricity, currently about 10 times what they were a year ago, have nearly driven California's two biggest utilities out of business, since a rate freeze -- part of California's effort to deregulate its electricity sector -- blocks them from passing those costs down to their retail customers.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the utility subsidiary of San Francisco-based PG&E Corp. , and Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International , have warned that they are perhaps just days from bankruptcy.

RUSH FOR SOLUTIONS

With the power crisis worsening daily and some 24 million of California's 34 million residents wondering if they will have electricity next week, lawmakers are scrambling to find ways to sort out the mess.

This past week's blackouts and the utilities' warnings that they can no longer pay their bills give a heightened sense of urgency to the situation, but industry analysts and legislators warn no one has yet come up with a "silver bullet" solution.

State legislators late Thursday approved a temporary rescue plan authorizing the state Department of Water Resources to spend $400 million to buy power for the near-bankrupt utilities.

Gov. Gray Davis was expected to sign the measure on Friday, according to published reports. The law is to expire Feb. 2.

The water department has been buying emergency supplies on the spot market since last week and has turned off big pumps in the central valley water project that moves water from northern to southern California to save energy.

-- Swissrose (cellier@azstarnet.com), January 19, 2001

Answers

"The water department has ... turned off big pumps in the central valley water project that moves water from northern to southern California to save energy." If this continues, a water crisis will develop in Southern California, a potentially major cascading effect.

-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), January 19, 2001.

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