PUC Member Says Worst of Power Crisis May Be Over (KFWB) 6.26.01, 1:15p --

There may not be a power crisis this summer after all, according to Carl Wood, a member of the Public Utilities Commission. He told an overflow crowd of business owners attending an energy conference in Diamond Bar that the worst of the state's energy woes may be over.

Wood says the first major hot spell of the summer could lead to shortages. However, he believes federal intervention is preventing power generators from intentionally withholding supplies. The commissioner says they have removed the price incentive of withholding power, so a significant reduction in blackouts should follow.

"We could actually see an end to the rolling blackouts even during the summer months. The reason being it is not at all clear that the blackouts have been due to any absolute absence or insufficiency of generation capacity," said Wood.

Conservation efforts have increased supplies by at least 10 percent and additional generating capacity is also coming on line. The hundreds of business owners attending the day-long conference also learned ways to cut electricity costs. Wood says the conservation efforts must continue or demand will exceed supply.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), June 26, 2001

Answers

Interesting concept. Of course, the thought of few or no rolling blackouts is based entirely upon the assumption that power generators have been withholding supply. In this event, yes, controls will remove the incentive for them to do this in the future, therefore the electricity will flow.

If, on the other hand, he is wrong, they were not withholding supply, but were actually running short, then the incentive will be to say screw California, channel short-supply energy to other states instead, and cut back on their plans to expand facilities here.

I live in California, have studied this energy situation closely, and must say that I have no confidence whatsoever in the above assurance. It is still far from proven that any supply was withheld at all.

-- Big Cheese (bigcheese@multimax.net), June 26, 2001.

WoW, Now that the California Energy Crisis is over maybe we can concentrate on those other big stories like manhole covers and squirrel attacks. What do you think?

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 26, 2001.

Re: WoW, Now that the California Energy Crisis is over maybe we can concentrate on those other big stories like manhole covers and squirrel attacks.

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My first thought was, of course! Manhole covers are flying through the air all over Georgetown. That's serious if you are anywhere around where they land. :^)

Then I recalled why the San Onofre nuke plant went offline - a big electrical fire in controlling equipment. Now, why would that happen? Unremediated Y2K problems? I do believe that had something to do with some of the unplanned downtime in other plants.

Contrariwise, some of the downtime at various generators was probably also due to market gamers, who saw an opportunity to take the utilities and the state for a ride. It would have been contrary to human nature not to exploit a big loophole in the deregulation law.

-- Margaret J (mjans01@yahoo.com), June 26, 2001.

Whoever came up with the phrase, Whistling In The Dark? It seems to apply here--in more ways than one.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), June 26, 2001.