Huh? CA: State peak electric use drops despite rolling blackouts

FOLSOM, Calif. (AP) -- Peak electricity use dropped this year in California for the first time in years, a newspaper reported Friday.

This summer of frequent stage-one emergencies failed to hit a record for peak demand, which officials at the Independent System Operator attribute to lower usage in San Diego and more conservation.

The state's peak demand this summer reached 43,784 megawatts on Aug. 16. Last year's peak demand was 45,884 on July 12.

Details of this year's electricity use were published in Friday's edition of The Sacramento Bee.

It is unclear how the state managed to lower peak energy use while still consuming record-breaking amounts of energy throughout the summer.

``We think that our customers really came through for us,'' said Doug Calvert, a power manager at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

``It's right next door. Seeing it happen, where you had actual rotating blackouts in San Francisco, it made the problem a lot more realistic to people,'' he said.

Lower usage in San Diego might have also helped keep off peak-use records. There, customers saw their electricity bills nearly triple and responded by cutting use so much at San Diego Gas and Electric saw the lowest peak number since 1997, despite thousands of new hookups.

At the ISO, the independent agency that keeps most of the state's electrical grid, officials credited the increase in emergency warnings to a decrease in energy imports that fell more sharply than the peak usage.

Twice this summer the ISO came within minutes of ordering rotating blackouts to ease the strain on the electrical grid caused by a lack of energy available from other states.

http://www.mercurycenter.com/breaking/docs/064065.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 06, 2000