Power blackouts could affect Colorado

Posted on March 17, 2001

Colorado is prepared for the summer electricity crunch, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the state won’t be affected by blackouts predicted for California. Power blackouts appear inevitable in California this summer and could spill into neighboring Western states, according to the Bush administration.

But Colorado has available more than the amount of electricity residents are predicted to use this summer, said Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz. Xcel serves about 75 percent of Colorado. Colorado is at the easternmost edge of the 14-state grid system that supplies electricity to the West. “Nobody’s an island in this area,” Stutz said. But if there are blackouts in California, Colorado would feel less of an impact than states that border California, he said.

It would take an operational problem such as temporarily losing a power plant or transmission line to cause blackouts in Colorado, Stutz said. Such operational problems can have a cascading effect across the West. “You can never say never about things like this,” he said.

Unlike California, Colorado has been preparing for increasing energy demands, said Colorado Public Utilities Commission spokeswoman Barbara Fernandez.

The state approved a plan last month to add about 2,000 megawatts of electricity to its supply by 2005. Of that, 162 megawatts will be generated by wind power, and none will be generated by coal-burning power plants.

One megawatt of power serves a community of 1,000 people under normal weather conditions.

Colorado’s electricity use peaked at 5,502 megawatts last August, and is predicted to peak at 5,600 megawatts this summer. The state has access to about 15 percent more electricity than the predicted peak usage.

California, on the other hand, is expecting a shortage of 5,000 megawatts during peak demand periods this summer, said Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif. The Bush administration is trying to find ways to increase power supplies in the West, according to U. S. Energy Secretary Spence Abraham.

Prices have soared because of shortages, but the administration has strongly opposes price controls despite pleas from California and the Northwest that federal intervention in a “broken market” is essential, Abraham said at a Senate hearing.

The debate over wholesale prices is diverting attention from the need to find ways to increase supplies and prevent blackouts, Abraham said.

— Staff and Wire Reports

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article.php?sid=396

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 18, 2001