State's Power Grid Again Pushed to Brink of Rolling Blackouts ,
 ----- 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. 


                                                  

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