California ends 2nd day of blackouts

FOLSOM, California (CNN) -- California's power system Tuesday afternoon stopped the rolling blackouts it ordered early in the day, but warned that further outages were still possible.

California's Independent System Operator, which runs the state power grid, dropped back to its second-highest state of alert after nearly five hours of shortages that forced the state's three major private utilities to cut off electricity in various locations.

"While it's still critical, it's dropped out of the extremely critical stage," said California ISO spokesman Patrick Dorinson said. But he warned the state's evening peak demand had still not arrived, and the reprieve might not last long.

The state ISO, which manages the statewide grid, had ordered California utilities to cut power consumption by 500 megawatts -- prompting blackouts in areas selected by the individual utilities.

Pacific Gas and Electric cut 102,000 customers at 9:20 a.m., said spokesman Jon Tremayne. The move trimmed 196 megawatts of consumption in northern California.

VIDEO The U.S. will soon unveil a plan to fix the problem of energy shortages. CNN's Wolf Blitzer reports Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) For some Californians, dinner was interrupted by a blackout. Correspondent Anita Vogel reports Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     IN-DEPTH SPECIAL Online coverage of the energy crunch in California   MESSAGE BOARD Power crisis

At a news conference Tuesday morning, Dorinson said the power grid has fallen 500 megawatts short of what it needs.

"Our load continued to climb this morning. We thought we would be okay through the 9 o'clock hour, but our load continued to go up," Dorinson said.

Dorinson said power officials' pleas for customers to cut back on their power usage have not been heeded.

"We have not seen the kind of conservation we saw back in January and December," he said. "If we don't have conservation efforts, it's just that many more megawatts we'll have to keep off the system."

A megawatt of electricity can power about 750 customers, Dorinson said. The standard used to be 1,000 customers, but the number of appliances most people have in their homes has gone up.

Dorinson said California utilities would not be able to import as much power from the Pacific Northwest than it did on Monday, and small independent power generators with around 6,000 megawatts of generating capacity were also off line.

Dorinson did not offer an explanation for that. But some of the operators have said they cannot operate because they have not been paid by the electric utilities they serve for power they generated in the past.

Monday's blackouts affected about 500,000 homes in northern and southern California. They were the first since January, when more than 675,000 homes in northern California lost power for brief periods.

Temperatures that reached 87 degrees in southern California, coupled with maintenance problems at one plant and a fire at an auxiliary generator at another, triggered Monday's outages.

Another 12,000 megawatts of power had already been cut when power-generating equipment was taken out of service for maintenance, much of which had been delayed by prior emergencies, he said.

Peak demand throughout California topped 29,000 megawatts, California ISO Vice President Jim Detmers said Monday.

"Conservation needs to be the message here in California," he said. "It needs to be a way of life."

Imported electricity and the return of power plants that had been down for repairs eased California's power crunch after January's crisis. But California is anticipating a summer of power shortages and the possibility of rolling blackouts. Natural gas supplies are tight, water supplies are down and a heat wave could drive up demand for power.

California's problems have been blamed on high power costs due to the state's 1996 law deregulating the industry. Its two largest utilities,

Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric, say they have lost $13 billion since last year because of high wholesale electricity costs. Energy wholesalers have been reluctant to provide power for fear of not being repaid.

Gov. Gray Davis' administration has committed $2.7 billion -- about $45 million a day -- for power purchases, which the state says will be repaid via an estimated $10 billion bond issue for cheaper, long-term power contracts.

In another development on the energy front, members of the Northwest Energy Caucus met with Vice President Dick Cheney on Capitol Hill to discuss rising energy prices in their region and frustration with California's appetite for their energy resources.

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Washington, said he was disappointed the administration would not consider price caps to deal with rising energy prices.

"What is going on in the western coast right now is an economic hoof-and-mouth disease," he said. "It's an emergency of national dimensions."

Inslee said the region stood on "the brink of a recession" because of the energy prices.

Other lawmakers, however, said they did not want price caps, saying that's what led to the energy crunch in California. And several lawmakers said they did not want their Pacific Northwest states to become energy farms for their southern neighbor.

"We don't like it," said U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Washington.

California hit with blackouts again
March 19, 2001
California power sellers told to give back millions or justify prices
March 9, 2001
California IT staff prepare for more blackouts
February 27, 2001
California power order extended to Thursday
February 8, 2001
Western governors, Bush team hold electricity summit
February 2, 2001
California governor signs bill to buy power for utilities
February 1, 2001

The California ISO
PG&E Corporation
SoCal Edison
  • Deregulation - What this means to you - Electricity Market Issues
California Power Exchange
System Conditions - The California ISO
California Public Utilities Commission
California Utilities Emergency Association
Foundation For Taxpayer & Consumer Rights

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.