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California grid manager warns blackouts likely today Posted at 8:41 a.m. PDT Tuesday, May 8, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California energy officials warned Tuesday that rolling blackouts were likely for a second consecutive day due to temperatures that were near record highs and a severe electricity shortage.

``It is looking definitely worse today,'' said Stephanie McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the California Independent System Operator. The ISO is the agency that manages most of the state's power transmission system. ``We're predicting rolling blackouts could begin as early as 9 a.m. (1600 GMT), possibly lasting through 4 p.m. (2300 GMT).

She said the state was facing a shortfall of 2,000 megawatts -- roughly enough to power 2 million homes -- due to a second day of heavy air conditioning demand during a blistering spring heat wave and repair or refueling outages at several of the region's big nuclear power plants.

Blackouts, ordered whenever electricity reserves drop to within 1.5 percent of demand, rolled through California for about an hour Monday afternoon -- the fifth time this year and the first since March -- knocking out power to an estimated 225,000 customers.

-- Swissrose (cellier3@mindspring.com), May 08, 2001