WIRE:08/04/2000 19:18:00 ET California Power Emergency Called As Plants Fail LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California"s power crisis showed no sign of abating on Friday as blistering temperatures continued to engulf the state sparking an electricity emergency for the fifth consecutive day. The California Independent System Operator (ISO), which operates most of the state"s power grid, called for voluntary power conservation issuing a so-called stage one emergency. While the heat kept demand at near record levels, mechanical failures at two power plants in southern California reduced available supply, the ISO said in a statement. Industry sources said around 550 megawatts of power was lost due to the outages, enough to supply about 550,000 homes.

The ISO had declared so-called stage two emergencies, which result in the loss of power to some industrial and commercial customers, on the previous four days. These customers get power at a discount in return for agreeing to have their service cut when supplies are tight. On both Tuesday and Wednesday the ISO came within a whisker of declaring a so-called stage three emergency which would had led to rolling blackouts across the state. California blazed the trail for electricity deregulation in the United States but the latest series of power emergencies have added further fuel to the debate about whether it is working. Wholesale power prices have soared to record levels this summer leading to a near tripling in bills for residential consumers in San Diego, the first in the nation to have to pay market-based prices without a safety net. There have been accusations of price gouging by generators and California Gov. Gray Davis has ordered an investigation into possible manipulation in the wholesale power market. The state legislature is due to return from its summer recess next week and San Diego Sen. Dede Alpert has said she will seek hearings on the crisis.

In a bid to protect San Diego customers, the ISO this week ordered that the state"s wholesale electricity price cap should be halved to $250 per megawatt hour from $500, effective Monday in a move that some fear may make it even harder for California to import the power it needs from other states. California is heavily dependent on surrounding states to help meet its power demand but has been finding it increasingly difficult to import electricity in recent years. Power loads in Nevada, for example, have soared 51 percent in the past 10 years, helping to absorb the Southwest"s power surplus, which used to be exported to California. There also have been few power plants built during the past 10 years, and although many are now planned, the prolonged approval and construction process means most will not come on line before 2002.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20000804_2431.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 04, 2000

Answers

Two power plants fail during Stage 1 emergency LOS ANGELES (AP) -- High temperatures continued to push the state's power grid beyond its limits, resulting in the failure of two Southern California power plants as a stage one emergency was declared by the agency that manages the state's power.

Friday's stage one emergency came on the heels of four consecutive days of stage two alerts, which result in voluntary reductions by large electricity customers. A stage one emergency is declared whenever power reserves fall below 7 percent; a stage two alert occurs when reserves fall below 5 percent.

California has never had a stage three emergency, declared when reserves fall below 1.5 percent, but came perilously close Tuesday and Wednesday, as heavy demand from hot weather strained resources across the state.

Power plants went without routine maintenance under a five-day "no- touch" directive from the California Independent System Operator, manager of the state's power grid. The order, which has been issued at least 17 times this year, prohibits all but emergency repairs.

Officials said this week's failure of two Southern California plants and one in Northern California is indicative of a system which has been pushed to capacity for a long time.

"This very much demonstrates the fact that we have been running this system hard for more than two months," Cal-ISO spokesman Patrick Dorinson said. "That's taken a toll, not only on the power plants, but also on the operators and everyone else."

The incidents came amid growing speculation that the state's aging power infrastructure cannot keep pace with the electrical demand of California's surging population. Nearly two-thirds of electricity- generating plants are more than 30 years old, said Jan Smutny-Jones, chairman of the Cal-ISO board of governors and director of the Independent Energy Producers Assn.

"For a power plant, that is pretty old, and they're running as well as can be expected," he said.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/calreport/calrep_story.cgi?N402.HTML

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 05, 2000.