By Nigel Hunt
 LOS
ANGELES (Reuters) - California suffered its second consecutive
day of statewide blackouts on Tuesday as consumers turned up their
power-hungry air conditioners amid scorching temperatures, ignoring
pleas for conservation, while officials warned of more of the
same on Wednesday.
The California
Independent System Operator (ISO), which runs most of the state's
power grid, ordered utilities to impose blackouts across the state
at 3:10 p.m. (6:10 p.m. EDT), cutting off power to some 300,000
homes and businesses.
Those customers
saw their power restored an hour later but a second block then
lost electricity and it was around 5:15 p.m. (8:15 p.m. EDT) when
blackouts were finally halted.
ISO officials
warned, however, that continued hot weather and tight power supplies
threaten to create havoc on the grid again on Wednesday.
``We are experiencing
record temperatures, so a third day of residual heat should be
challenging,'' a spokeswoman said.
Californians,
used to coping with major disasters like earthquakes and forest
fires, appeared to be taking the latest round of blackouts in
their stride.
In San Francisco,
the fire department was called to rescue at least one woman trapped
in an elevator while in southern California television stations
reported a dentist was forced to send home a patient in the middle
of treatment.
Customers
at gas stations also found themselves suddenly unable to finish
filling their tanks with some of the highest-priced gasoline seen
in years.
Officials
stressed that crucial public services such as hospitals, police
and fire departments are exempt from the cuts -- reducing the
danger of a major civic disruptions.
Blackouts
had been forecast by the ISO since early in the morning with the
heat coming at a time when many power plants are still off line
for spring maintenance. The financial woes of California's leading
utilities helped to worsen the crisis.
They were
roughly evenly split between northern and southern California
but customers of the nation's largest municipal utility, the Los
Angeles Department and Power, were as usual excluded. The LADWP
is not under the ISO's control and has more than enough generation
to meet its demand.
Blackouts
More Widespread Than Monday
Tuesday's
blackouts were more widespread than the previous day, when some
225,000 customers lost power for about an hour.
Jim McIntosh,
director of grid operations for the ISO said that the public responded
to appeals for help on Monday and conserved power, helping to
minimize blackouts. A similar response was not, however, forthcoming
on Tuesday.
``It looks
like we are seeing a lack of conservation,'' McIntosh said, noting
demand has been running around 1,000 megawatt above Monday's levels.
Earlier Tuesday,
ISO officials had projected blackouts could be ordered as early
as 9 a.m. (1600 GMT), but the return to service of two 500-kilovolt
lines operated by Canadian utility BC Hydro meant vital supplies
were able to flow south.
As the whole
Southwest baked with triple-digit temperatures in some areas,
higher electricity use in states such as Nevada and Arizona meant
less power for California, which normally imports up to 25 percent
of its needs from its neighbors.
``With the
regional heat in the Southwest we don't have imports...we would
like to count on,'' said ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle.
Rolling blackouts
follow a ``Stage Three'' alert when operating reserves fall below
1.5 percent -- a level where there is a danger of a total collapse
of the grid if emergency action is not taken.
Financial
Crisis
The shortage
of supplies has been worsened by the financial crisis of the state's
two leading utilities, Southern California Edison and Pacific
Gas & Electric, as many small power producers have received
either no payment for their supplies or at best partial payment
for several months.
McIntosh said
that 700 MW produced by these suppliers, known as Qualifying Facilities
(QF), are currently offline for ''financial reasons.'' There is
also a further 700 MW of QF production off-line for maintenance.
PG&E Corp.
unit Pacific Gas & Electric filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection last month and Edison International unit Southern California
Edison has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for months.
The financial
woes for the two utilities began in late spring 2000 as prices
for wholesale power skyrocketed, boosted by buoyant demand linked
to a strong economy and a decade in which virtually no new power
plants had been built.
The price
hikes were a financial disaster for the utilities, which could
not pass those costs on to their customers due to a retail price
freeze mandated under the state's 1996 power deregulation law.
The ISO just
before noon and issued a so-called ``Stage Two'' alert. This resulted
in the loss of power for some commercial and industrial customers.
They receive power at a discount in return for agreeing to have
their service cut off for up to six hours during an emergency.
McIntosh estimated
that ``interruptible'' customers who lose service under a Stage
Two alert represent about 910 megawatts of demand, of which 850
MW is based in southern California.
He noted these
customers can only be interrupted 12 times under the terms of
their contracts and Tuesday was the second consecutive day they
had been called upon.
``That is
another tool we are going to lose here shortly,'' he said, noting
once the program has been exhausted the agency would lose an important
buffer which has been limiting the frequency and extent of blackouts.
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