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---------------------- Forwarded by Christi L Nicolay/HOU/ECT on 07/03/2001
10:59 AM --------------------------- From: Alan Comnes/ENRON@enronXgate on 07/03/2001 10:37 AM To: Mark Palmer/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Christi L Nicolay/HOU/ECT@ECT, Sarah Novosel/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Susan J Mara/NA/Enron@ENRON, Dave Perrino/SF/ECT@ECT, Paul Kaufman/ENRON@enronXgate, Janel Guerrero/Corp/Enron@Enron, Jeff Dasovich/NA/Enron@Enron cc: Subject: LV valley endures blackouts Now here's an "unintended" consequence: price caps cause less supply to be available (marketers cannot sell above cap and generators must be subject to cost filings if they do) and the result is black outs. Alan Tuesday, July 03, 2001 Copyright , Las Vegas Review-Journal POWER SHORTAGES: LV valley endures blackouts Utility officials expect supplies to stay tight as hot weather continues this week By JOHN G. EDWARDS REVIEW-JOURNAL The first rolling blackouts in Southern Nevada history hit the Las Vegas Valley on Monday with a speed that surprised even Nevada Power Co. The utility company declared a red alert and initiated rolling blackouts that left an estimated 10,000 customers without power. It had reported 70,000 customers were affected but later revised the number of customers who lost electricity. The blackouts started at 4:10 p.m. and ended at 4:55 p.m., the utility said. Nevada Power attributed the power shortages to several factors: unusually high temperatures for this time of year, three generation unit outages, the area's rapid growth, power shortages in California and, possibly, the wholesale power price caps that federal regulators imposed last month. "What killed us was the temperature was unbelievable," said Paul Heagan, vice president of Sierra Pacific Resources, the holding company for Nevada Power. The Las Vegas temperature soared to a near-record 114 degrees. As for the rest of the week, "power (supply) is going to be tight," Heagan said. "The prospects this week are kind of tough to call." The company logged record demand for power: 4,421 megawatts at 5:05 p.m. Monday. The previous all-time high was 4,325 megawatts on Aug. 1. A megawatt is roughly the amount of power needed to supply 750 houses. By contrast, on July 2 last year, the utility hit 3,300 megawatts when the temperature was 107 degrees, Heagan said. The company targeted nonemergency areas for Monday's rolling blackouts, which affected mostly residential customers. Nevada Power spokesmen declined to identify the affected areas even after the emergency was over. Witnesses said power went out in one area of the Northwest and one area of the east valley. Electricity customers in the affected areas said the blackouts lasted between 20 and 45 minutes. Several traffic signals went out, including those at the intersections of Buffalo Drive and Lake Mead Boulevard, Tenaya Way and Lake Mead, and Boulder Highway at U.S. Highway 95. Las Vegas Police Department officials reported few traffic problems because of the blackouts. For the most part, people reported few problems. "We only had a few customers, and we couldn't do Western Union transactions without a computer, but with the other customers we just winged it," said Michelle Hitt, a customer service representative at Mail Boxes Etc., 7500 W. Lake Mead Blvd. Hitt said power at his store was out about 45 minutes. Across the street, an assistant manager for the Vons supermarket at 7530 W. Lake Mead Blvd. said customers could not check out when the store's power turned off. The Roadhouse Grill at Lake Mead Boulevard and Tenaya Way was shut down for about 25 minutes shortly after 4 p.m., restaurant manager Kim Tuerk said. "We had to evacuate the building because of health department and fire codes, but it was no big deal," he said. Heagan said Nevada Power will start its rolling blackouts in other areas of the valley if it needs to cut power again this week. The utility's policy calls for no notification to areas that will lose power, unlike California, where a minimum of 24 hours notice is required. Nevada Power fears that notification would be used by burglars to locate unoccupied houses during the emergency. Tim Hay, state consumer advocate, said he thinks customers in affected areas should be notified of possible outages. "They need to provide notice to affected areas, at least in general areas" to help people prepare, Hay said. Elsewhere in the valley, consumers and businesses continued operating normally during the emergency. Meadows mall General Manager Frank Wheat said power was not affected at the shopping center. "We know rolling blackouts can occur," he said. "We do have backup generators for emergency lighting during hours of darkness, but not for all the stores." Spokespeople at University Medical Center and Sunrise Hospital also said they were not affected by Monday's blackouts and have their own backup power supplies. Minta Albietz, vice president of maternal-child services at Sunrise: "We have our own little power plant in the back. We can generate our own power for 30 days, longer as long as we have fuel." The company said its power woes began Friday when it internally declared a yellow alert and warned employees that it was running short of power, Heagan said. On Friday, Nevada Power customers were pulling down 4,300 megawatts, the second- or third-highest peak in the company history, he said. Meanwhile, one of Nevada Power's electrical generation units at the Reid Gardner site 50 miles north of Las Vegas has been down since Friday because of a leaking boiler, he said. Also, Southern California Edison, which operates the Mohave Generating Station at Laughlin for several utilities, notified the company Friday that two of Nevada Power's units were down. Nevada Power said it was able to obtain additional power on the spot market and avoid blackouts last week and did not need to seek any power use curtailment by major users. The yellow alert continued through the weekend, a period when electric consumption usually declines because businesses are closed and many people are driving around. The company made arrangements to buy another 250 megawatts of electricity Monday when most businesses reopened. "That got eaten up by early afternoon," Heagan said. The utility said casinos reduced about 50 megawatts by switching to backup generators and starting conservation measures. But several Strip casino operators said they received no requests to conserve power or to turn on their backup generation units. "Nevada Power hasn't asked us to shed (power) load," said Debbie Munch, Park Place Entertainment spokeswoman. "They asked us to cut our power usage a couple of times last summer, and we did so. If they do ask us, we'll do what we can to help the community." Mandalay Resort Group and MGM Mirage executives said they were not asked to cut their power use Monday. "Our facilities guys said nobody's asked us for anything, and we haven't done anything," said Fred Lewis, Aladdin spokesman. "At first glance, it appears the problem was handled very well," said Don Soderberg, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, which regulates Nevada Power. "It's always hard to predict when we're going to have abnormal temperatures, and power plants are going to go off-line," Soderberg said. The situation, he added, "underlines the need to build more power plants." Monday's 114-degree high was one degree shy of the record for the date. The heat follows the warmest May on record, said Joe Nemeth, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to stay warm but tapering off as the week progresses and the risk for thunderstorms increases, meteorologists reported. Highs will stay in the triple-digit range, but drop to 110 degrees today, 105 on Wednesday, 106 on Thursday and 103 on Friday. A less than 20 percent chance for rain exists today, a chance that increases to 30 percent Wednesday. Forecasters expect a 40 to 50 percent chance of rain the rest of the week. This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jul-03-Tue-2001/news/16458159.html
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