Solcom House
The entire
Western power grid of The United States is facing chaos. Power
supplies from Seattle to San Diego are at critically low levels.
This emergency
has come about by the explosive growth in electric demand by the
growing population and electric use by the high tech industry
in the area.
Predicted
colder weather is expected to put even more of a drain on the
system in the coming days and weeks. No solution for this situation
is in the foreseeable future.
The California
Power Grid managed by the California Independent System Operator
has issued electrical emergency warnings for the past week. Reserves
in California fell to 1.5% and rolling brownouts and even blackouts
are highly likely.
Compounding
the shortage in California was the fact that 17 power plants were
shut down because they reached their pollution limits. On Friday
several of these plants were started back up to help in this emergency
situation.
In the past
ten years the building of new power plants has been far outpaced
by the demand. Some in California are blaming this on electric
deregulation. They say the passing of this law gave no incentive
to power companies to build more plants and it also gave them
the ability to raise prices without any state imposed limitations.
This past summer in San Diego the price of electricity tripled
in price.
The CISO paid
81 million dollars for electricity on Friday the regular cost
usually is 5 million dollars. Electric costs are not the only
energy source that is soaring in price in California-natural gas
was at $35.00 per million British Thermal Units-a staggering 16
times the price it was a year ago.
Christmas
lights in California will be off this year-people all over the
State of California will be asking Santa Claus for coal this year-so
they can burn it.
California
Independent System Operator Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE Contact: Patrick Dorinson
December 11,
2000 Director of Communications
1 (888) 516-NEWS
CALIFORNIA
ISO ISSUES STAGE TWO ELECTRICAL EMERGENCY
(Folsom, CA)
The California Independent System Operator (California ISO) is
declaring a Stage Two Electrical Emergency today, Monday, December
11, 2000, effective 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. Demand across the California
ISO Control Area is expected to peak at 33,952 megawatts around
6:00 p.m. tonight.
At this time,
California ISO is activating only Pacific Gas and Electric’s
voluntary load management program which contains approximately
400 MW of load. The ISO urges interruptible customers to wait
to shed their contracted electrical load until specified to do
so by their local utility. Interruptible customers, mainly commercial
and industrial users, receive a reduced rate in exchange for a
commitment to come off line when asked to do so for reliability
purposes.
The California
ISO encourages state residents to continue their energy conservation
efforts. Electricity in the state remains in short supply due
to cold temperatures in the Northwest that have limited energy
imports and approximately 8,500 megawatts worth of in-state power
generation that continues to be off line due to planned and unplanned
outages.
One more Teleconference
Update will be hosted this evening by the California ISO to provide
information about today’s peak and expectations for tomorrow’s
operations.
A Stage Two
Emergency is declared when operating reserves dip below five percent
or are expected to within the next two hours. If an operating
reserve shortfall of less than one-and-a-half percent is unavoidable,
Stage Three will be initiated. Involuntary curtailments of service
to customers, including "rotating blackouts," are possible
during this emergency declaration. The California ISO’s Electrical
Emergency Plan (EEP) is part of the state’s enhanced reliability
standards created by landmark legislation Assembly Bill 1890,
which restructured California’s electricity industry. A Stage
One Emergency, urging Californians to conserve as much energy
as possible, was called at 9:30 a.m., and is effective through
10:00 p.m. this evening.
The California
ISO is charged with managing the flow of electricity along the
long-distance, high-voltage power lines that make up the bulk
of California’s transmission system. The not-for-profit public-benefit
corporation assumed the responsibility in March, 1998, when California
opened its energy markets to competition and the state’s
investor-owned utilities turned their private transmission power
lines over to the California ISO to manage. The mission of the
California ISO is to safeguard the reliable delivery of electricity,
facilitate markets and ensure equal access to a 12,500 circuit
mile "electron highway."
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