Wednesday June 14, 3:37 pm Eastern Time

Heatwave forces some power cuts in San Francisco area

LOS ANGELES, June 14 (Reuters) - The California Independent System Operator (ISO), which operates much of the states' power grid, said Wednesday it has asked San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric to interrupt service to some industrial and commercial customers.

A spokeswoman said the request was made due to unusually hot weatehr and problems with a couple of generation sources which supply the area.

Some industrial and commercial customers receive power at a lower rate in return for agreeing to have their supply interrupted when reserves drop below five percent.

``It (the supply problem) is limited to the Bay area,'' a spokeswoman said.

Weather Services Corp. was forecasting triple digit temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday in Californian cities such as Sacramento (peaking at 105 degrees F both days), Fresno (105 and 108) and San Jose (102 and 104).

Hot weather leads to increased demand for electricity due to the heavy use of air conditioning units.

Pacific Gas and Electric is a unit of PG&E Corp (NYSE:PCG - news).

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000614/n14511654.html

-- Stuck in an elevator (long@hot.summer), June 14, 2000