WIRE: 05/07/2001 8:21 pm ET

Blackouts ordered for California

The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California's power grid managers ordered statewide rolling blackouts Monday for the first time since March, cutting enough electricity for about 225,000 homes. The California Independent System Operator said high temperatures and tight electricity supplies led to the hourlong blackouts.

"We expected demand to peak between 3 and 4 p.m. and it didn't," said ISO spokeswoman Lorie O'Donley. "It just continued to climb."

Grid managers asked utilities to cut 300 megawatts. One megawatt is enough to power about 750 homes.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. spokesman Ron Low said the utility was cutting power to about 56,000 customers in Northern and Central California. Another 36,000 customers of Southern California Edison lost power, as did a smaller number of customers of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

Before the blackouts, the ISO had urged conservation because warm weather across the West was pushing up demand for electricity.

In addition, several key power plants were closed for pre-summer maintenance, officials said. Those plants normally would provide enough power for about 9.4 million homes.

Among the plants down for repairs are four nuclear power plants.

The ISO declared a Stage 2 alert Monday morning as electricity reserves dwindled to close to 5 percent. A Stage 3 alert, when reserves near 1.5 percent, can prompt blackouts.

California was hit with rolling blackouts Jan. 17 and 18 and March 19 and 20.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20010507_1692.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 07, 2001

Answers

State blackouts ordered, Elk Grove, Laguna areas hit

Updated: May 7, 2001 - 5:51 p.m. More than 4,000 SMUD customers in Elk Grove and Laguna were hit with rotating blackouts Monday afternoon after a Stage 3 power alert was declared.

California power grid operators ordered statewide rolling blackouts, cutting enough power for about 225,000 homes.

The California Independent System Operator, keeper of the state's power grid, said high temperatures in California and the West and tight electricity supplies led to the blackouts. Grid managers asked for 300 megawatts to be cut between the state's three private utilities.

"We expected demand to peak between 3 and 4 p.m. and it didn't," said ISO spokeswoman Lorie O'Donley. "It just continued to climb."

The outages were expected to last about an hour, then grid managers would evaluate the state's power supplies, she said.

Higher temperatures forced power demand about 2,000 megawatts higher than grid managers had forecast, said ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle.

Grid officials had managed to stave off an earlier threat of blackouts by asking "interruptible" customers to cut back, she said. Those large commercial customers get cheaper electricity rates in exchange for scaling back power use during power emergencies.

"We were able to take off the interruptible, but only for so long. Then they started coming back on and the temperatures were still high," she said.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. spokesman Ron Low said the utility was cutting 125 megawatts in Northern and Central California, affecting about 54,000 customers.

San Diego Gas & Electric cut power to customers in Orange County, El Cajon and the Torrey Pines and Mira Mesa areas of San Diego.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District cut 18 megawatts, affecting about 4,600 customers in southern Sacramento County, while the outages affected approximately 36,000 commercial, industrial and residential customers of Southern California Edison.

Small portions of 40 communities serviced by Edison were hit by the blackouts, including Chino Hills, Calimesa, Tulare, Long Beach, Beverly Hills, Oxnard, Barstow, Fullerton, Blythe, Santa Monica and Montclair, the company said.

In addition to scarce imports, several key power plants were closed for pre-summer maintenance, including four nuclear power plants, O'Donley said. Those plants normally would provide enough power for about 9.4 million homes.

An early heat spell and a large number of power plants off-line for pre-summer maintenance led California's grid operators to declare a Stage Two alert Monday morning when reserves fell to 5 percent.

At 11 a.m., grid officials were five minutes away from ordering blackouts, but saw enough response to their call for voluntary cutbacks to head off blackouts, said Jim McIntosh, ISO's director of operations.

ISO officials urged continued conservation Monday because high temperatures in California and the Southwest drove up power demands as residents throughout the West turned on air conditioners.

--Associated Press and Bee Staff

http://www.sacbee.com/news/beelive/show_story.cgi?stage3

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 07, 2001.

NOTICE: 200101104 POSTED: Mon May 07 17:58:00 2001 PDT ---------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 3 CANCELLATION NOTICE [200101104] Effective 05/07/2001 18:00 the California Independent System Operator has terminated Stage 3 of the Electrical Emergency Plan. Stage 3 has been in effect since 05/07/2001 16:43. This message is from Market Operations at the California ISO. This notice cancels notice 200101101Notice issued at: 05/07/2001 17:58 The system conditions described in this communication are dynamic and subject to change. While the ISO has attempted to reflect the most current, accurate information available in preparing this notice, system conditions may change suddenly with little or no notice. ---------------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE: 200101103 POSTED: Mon May 07 17:42:00 2001 PDT ---------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 3 ELECTRICAL EMERGENCY NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF LOAD INTERRUPTIONS [200101103] Effective 05/07/2001 17:41 the California Independent System Operator has terminated Load Interruptions - Stage 3 of the Electrical Emergency Plan. Stage 3 - Load Interruptions has been in effect since 05/07/2001 16:45. This notice cancels notice 200101102Notice issued at: 05/07/2001 17:42 The system conditions described in this communication are dynamic and subject to change. While the ISO has attempted to reflect the most current, accurate information available in preparing this notice, system conditions may change suddenly with little or no notice.

-- pho (owennos@bigfoot.com), May 07, 2001.

Rolling Blackouts Impact Parts Of South Cal

Outages Ordered As Demand Rises, Supply Shrinks BEVERLY HILLS, 6:30 p.m. PDT May 7, 2001 -- Power outages were ordered in parts of Southern California Monday afternoon after state energy reserves shrank and daytime temperatures soared.

According to CBS 2 News, small sections of Beverly Hills, Pasadena and Arcadia all lost electricity shortly after 5 p.m.

Along Wilshire Boulevard, between Linden and Bedford Streets, traffic signals went dead during the hour-long outage. Traffic officers kept the area from becoming clogged with afternoon commuters.

Luckily, said CBS 2 News chopper pilot Aaron Fitzgerald, the busy Wilshire and Santa Monica intersection was not affected, with traffic signals still in operation.

Brownouts were also said to have occurred in Arcadia, the City of Industry, Fullerton, Long Beach, Ontario, Oxnard, Pasadena and San Dimas.

Statewide, the rolling blackouts were expected to affect about 225,000 people.

Officials at the California Independent System Operator, which has authority over most of the electricity on the state's power grid, said that importing megawatts was difficult Monday because demand throughout the hot Southwest was high.

Supply was also down because some power stations in the state went offline for routine maintenance, according to reports.

http://www.channel2000.com/news/stories/news-75911920010507- 200521.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 07, 2001.

Why aren't Californians given PROMPT NOTICE that grid conditions have deteriorated to the point of ordering blackouts?? I got into a major fight today with my roommate over electricity waste, as the T.V. was on even though not being watched. And guess when this hit? You guessed it, just after 4 pm! If only the T.V. stations and cable operators had to give an onscreen alert, this fight would have been TOTALLY avoided! It just so happened I was right, in my suspicions of low grid margin, but neither I nor my roommate knew it at the time. The cascading effects of Y2K have hit home indeed!

-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), May 08, 2001.

Heat wave spawns statewide blackouts Year's first scorcher drains system; plugs pulled on 225,000

By Karen Kucher STAFF WRITER

May 8, 2001

Despite conservation and voluntary shutdowns, the first heat of the season meant blackouts for thousands across the state yesterday.

Power grid managers said the hot spell pushed demand beyond available power supplies shortly before 5 p.m., requiring about 300 megawatts to be cut off for about an hour.

The outages affected about 225,000 customers statewide, including about 8,600 in San Diego and south Orange counties, and provided a glimpse of what the next few months could be like in California. Yesterday's blackouts were the first since March.

All day, the state's electricity grid had been stretched to the limit. Demand jumped as consumers around the state switched on air conditioning, as record-breaking temperatures were recorded in Northern California. The temperature reached 93 degrees in San Francisco. More hot weather is forecast for today.

On a day when the peak demand was 33,300 megawatts, about 12,500 megawatts were unavailable because of scheduled maintenance work or breakdowns at generating plants. Repair work on a natural gas line in Ventura also put one power plant temporarily out of commission.

Around 11 a.m., grid operators came within 500 megawatts of ordering rolling blackouts in the state, but pulled back when usage dropped, said Jim McIntosh, director of operations for the California Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state power grid.

McIntosh said consumers and "interruptible" businesses allowed their power to be shut off for part of the day, an agreement they have made in exchange for cheaper power.

But under the contracts signed with utility companies, those businesses can only be interrupted for up to six hours a day. So when those customers came back on line in the afternoon, demand soared and outstripped supplies.

"When that load was restored, as far as I can tell, they were not able to recover additional load to cover it," said Michelle Mueller, a San Diego Gas & Electric spokeswoman.

ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle said power demand was about 2,000 megawatts higher than grid managers had forecast because of the record-high temperatures.

"With the interruptibles, we can only call on them for a certain length of time," she said. "Those were being restored at the same time the temperatures continued to soar late in the day and people were coming home to warm houses and switching on the air conditioning. We had higher demand the same time we had less generation."

At 4:36 p.m., the ISO ordered the megawatts to be dropped. SDG&E's portion was 25 megawatts. Pacific Gas and Electric shed 125 megawatts in Northern and Central California. Southern California Edison dropped 150 megawatts, while the Sacramento Municipal Utility District cut 18 megawatts.

Within three minutes of the order, SDG&E cut power to parts of El Cajon, Mira Mesa, Torrey Pines and La Jolla. Blackouts also affected SDG&E customers in several south Orange County communities.

Early in the day, SDG&E staff had gathered in the company's emergency operations center in Kearny Mesa and had called selected customers, such as those on life-support equipment and police and fire agencies, to warn of possible blackouts.

"It is such a dynamic situation," said SDG&E spokeswoman Laura Farmer. "It didn't look as bad, and then as the afternoon progressed it started looking more and more bleak, and then the ISO decided that they needed to call a Stage 3."

The blackouts apparently created few problems in the region.

Power went out in the La Jolla Executive Tower, but the outage had little impact on Barry Demchak, who runs Torrey Pines Software Inc.

He and his staff ran their computers on battery power and continued working, designing software.

"The sun comes through the windows. We have no real power needs," he said. "If the power goes off here for six or eight hours, we could care less."

El Cajon lost electricity at several intersections, but police received reports of outages lasting only 10 to 15 minutes.

"Those blackouts did not last an hour," said El Cajon police Sgt. Chuck Merino. "They can say what they want. By the time we showed up, it's like everything's fine."

However, a SDG&E spokeswoman said the outages could not have ended that quickly. She could not explain the discrepancy.

In Ramona, a Sizzler restaurant was forced to close its doors during one of the busiest times of the day -- from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

"We count on that hour," said manager Amy Krueger. "It impacts us quite a bit."

She posted a sign on the steakhouse doors saying it would reopen when the power was restored. But several families arrived for dinner while the restaurant was closed.

"We have a lot of regular customers that come on Monday nights and we had to turn them away," she said.

Staff writers Kristen Green and Matthew T. Hall contributed to this report.

http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/tue/news/news_1n8power.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 08, 2001.

going.....going.....

-- Tom Flook (tflook@earthlink.net), May 08, 2001.