|
|
Enron Mail |
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: Steven J Kean X-To: Elizabeth Linnell X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \Steven_Kean_June2001_4\Notes Folders\Discussion threads X-Origin: KEAN-S X-FileName: skean.nsf ----- Forwarded by Steven J Kean/NA/Enron on 09/20/2000 09:05 AM ----- Ann M Schmidt 09/19/2000 08:32 AM To: Mark Palmer/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Karen Denne/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Meredith Philipp/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Steven J Kean/NA/Enron@Enron cc: Subject: State's Power Grid Again Pushed to Brink of Rolling Blackouts Energy F.Y.I. Business; Financial Desk State's Power Grid Again Pushed to Brink of Rolling Blackouts Energy: High temperatures, generator shutdowns push usage within 5% of capacity. Heat wave is expected to continue today. NANCY RIVERA BROOKS 09/19/2000 Los Angeles Times Home Edition Page C-1 Copyright 2000 / The Times Mirror Company Sweltering weather across California pushed the state's heat-stressed electricity grid close to meltdown Monday, and state power officials urged electricity conservation because today and Wednesday could be even worse. Power was cut to hundreds of large business customers and about 125,000 residential and business air-conditioner and agricultural pumping customers Monday after the California Independent System Operator, which runs the electricity grid for about 75% of the state, declared a Stage 2 power emergency. At Stage 2, when the grid is using more than 95% of available power, the state's big investor-owned utilities are asked to interrupt power to customers that have agreed to this voluntary action in exchange for discounted rates. Grid reliability was threatened when two electricity units in Northern California stopped working for a time as heavy air-conditioner demand began to push power use higher, Cal-ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle said. Demand peaked at about 42,000 megawatts on the Cal-ISO grid, but the two unidentified units, representing about 320 megawatts of generation, were returned to service in the afternoon--in time to help keep the state from reaching its first Stage 3, which would lead to neighborhood blackouts. "We were right on the edge of warning about a possible Stage 3," McCorkle said. "A couple of generators fell offline in late morning, and that kind of gave everybody a scare." A Stage 3 emergency would be declared if power reserves fall below 1.5%--in essence, when the electricity grid is using more than 98.5% of available power--and rotating outages of nonessential customers for an hour or longer would become likely to keep the grid from failing. That would result in widespread blackouts lasting several hours. Electricity use was also high in the area served by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, peaking near 4,750 megawatts Monday. But DWP customers were not threatened by power interruptions or rolling blackouts because the municipal utility has more than enough generating capacity to meet demand. "We're doing OK as we have all summer long," said DWP General Manager S. David Freeman. Cal-ISO asked Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric to call on all of their interruptible-power customers to immediately stop using electricity, representing a potential 3,000 megawatts, or roughly the amount of electricity used by 3 million homes. Thousands of students at College of the Canyons in Valencia experienced the California equivalent of a snow day Monday when power outage alarms rang about 1:30 p.m, the seventh time this year, college spokesman Sue Bozman said. If the college doesn't pull the plug, it pays a big fine. "For several years, we saved $100,000 a year by being on this interruptible-service plan," said Bozman, who with other administrators finished the work day with mobile phones and portable computers. "But when the alarm rings and we decline to turn off our power, it's a whole different ballgame." One such day in May, during final exams, the college didn't cut power and penalties totaled $30,000, she said. During the height of Monday's power crisis, PG&E--whose territory suffered local blackouts on June 14 in a similar reliability emergency--kept an open telephone line to Cal-ISO for minute-by-minute updates, spokesman Ron Low said. SCE and the other utilities begged customers to use as little electricity as possible, and grocery stores around the state voluntarily reduced lighting and other power use to comply. "We're issuing a call to action, a call that everyone needs to take seriously," Pam Bass, SCE's senior vice president for customer service, said in a statement as electricity use soared Monday. "If the demand for power does not decrease soon, we will be directed by the state to begin shutting off power for blocks of customers. Everyone needs to cut their use of power now to avoid forced outages." Today and Wednesday could be even more challenging: Cal-ISO is predicting peak use of 44,827 megawatts for today. Peak demand was expected to be 44,537 megawatts on Monday, but conservation and power-interruption programs kept the total lower. "We are anticipating tomorrow to be a good deal like today," SCE spokeswoman Karen Shepard-Grimes said Monday. Electricity demand in SCE territory peaked at 17,860 megawatts before the Rosemead-based utility asked power customers to cut 2,500 megawatts of electricity. "It got really touchy today," she said. * Times staff writer Zanto Peabody contributed to this report. Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|