Rolling blackouts ordered for California

Posted at 12:38 p.m. PST Monday, March 19, 2001

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- The managers of California's power grid called a Stage 3 energy shortage Monday and ordered rolling blackouts for the first time since mid-January. The ISO ordered the state's two biggest utility companies, Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison, to cut a total of 500 megawatts of electricity, enough power for roughly 500,000 homes. McCorkle said the power cuts were split between Northern and Southern California.

Pacific Gas and Electric officials say customers in parts of Block 9 and Block 10 are being subjected to blackouts this afternoon following an emergency declaration by state power regulators.

A spokesman says the second half of Block 9 and the first half of Block 10 in the utility's Northern California region are affected during this hour. If the emergency continues at 1 p.m., customers in subsequent blocks will be subjected to the rolling outages.

Customers can determine their blocks by looking at the lower lefthand corner of their electricity bills.

Grid officials declared a Stage 2 alert at 6 a.m. when reserves threatened to fall below 5 percent. At that time, a total of 11,500 megawatts were offline due to plants down for repairs, said Lorie O'Donley, spokeswoman.

About 3,100 megawatts that were off the grid were from plants that use renewable energy, such as solar, wind and biomass, which burns wood waste, she said. Officials with the California Independent System Operator, keeper of the state's electricity grid, said higher demand combined with a lack of imported electricity from the Northwest led them to call a Stage 3 alert, the most serious shortage condition.

ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle said warmer temperatures led to the higher demand, as people begin using air conditioners. PG&E spokesman Ron Low said the San Francisco-based utility was ordered to cut 196 megawatts for one hour starting at noon. ``That's about 105,000 customers,'' Low said. He did not specify which communities were being hit.

Tom Boyd, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, said it implemented blackouts in the Los Angeles area cities of Chino, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, Visalia, Banning, Kern and Santa Monica. The outages are scheduled to last an hour, but could be shorter, he said.

PG&E has 4.5 million customers in Northern and Central California; Edison serves 4.2 million.

-- Swissrose (cellier3@mindspring.com), March 19, 2001

Answers

ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle said warmer temperatures led to the higher demand, as people begin using air conditioners.

And its only the middle of March.

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 19, 2001.

Updated Monday, March 19, 2001 Rolling blackouts to last all day March 19, 2001 -- Officials at the California Independent System Operator say they must double the amount of power taken off line today, which will cause rolling blackouts throughout the state through 8 p.m.

A spokesman says 1 million customers could be affected by the outages, which began at noon today. Pacific Gas and Electric officials say customers in parts of Block 9 and Block 10 are being subjected to blackouts this afternoon following the emergency declaration by state power regulators. A spokesman says the second half of Block 9 and the first half of Block 10 in the utility's Northern California region are affected so far. As the emergency continues, customers in subsequent blocks will be subjected to the rolling outages as well. Customers can determine their blocks by looking at the lower lefthand corner of their electricity bills. Patrick Dorinson, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator, said a loss of out-of-state power late this morning forced drastic measures throughout California. "We lost some more generation outside the state and it's just bad all around," Dorinson said. The ISO, which regulates power distribution in California, declared a Stage Two emergency at 6 a.m., a Stage Three at 11:46 a.m. and is urging conservation until midnight.

Stage One Emergencies are declared when power reserves fall below 7 percent. Stage Two kicks in when reserves fall below 5 percent. Stage Three is declared when reserves fall to less than 1.5 percent.

http://www.newsdirectory.com/go/?f=&r=ca&u=www.kntv.com

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 19, 2001.