Cold front could further strain California's power supply

In this story: 'Monday is going to be a really big challenge' Shutdown of pumps frees up electricity 'We're simply not ready for deregulation' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

SAN FRANCISCO, California -- The approach of a cold front was unwelcome news in California on Friday as the state's power supplies remained under heavy strain.

A unprecedented Stage Three alert was declared Thursday when power supplies slipped to critically low levels. The alert lasted two hours and did not result in any rolling blackouts.

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To save electricity, officials temporarily shut down large pumps that move water from Northern California to Southern California.

The emergency followed hours of increasing stress on California's electricity grid, which has been strapped by cold weather and power plants idled for maintenance and repairs. A Stage Three alert allows power grid managers to obtain emergency power and ask certain customers to curtail usage and warn of the possibility of blackouts.

'Monday is going to be a really big challenge'

Officials with California Independent System Operator (ISO), which controls the power grid for much of the western United States, said coming days won't get easier.

"The Northwest is also expecting cold weather, and a lot of power we use is from there and won't be coming down here," said Jim McIntosh, director of scheduling for the ISO. "Monday is going to be a really big challenge."

If enough power can't be found when demand peaks, the ISO could order rotating blackouts in which blocks of up to 100,000 customers would be without power for up to an hour.

Although power demands usually lessen over the weekend when commercial customers don't need it, said Jim Detmers, managing director of operations at ISO, a large transmission line and a power plant will be down for repairs this weekend, making those days critical.

Shutdown of pumps frees up electricity

Power grid managers were able to avoid blackouts Thursday by tapping electricity intended for the pumps that push water from Northern California to the central and southern regions of the state.

By temporarily halting the two-story pumps that suck water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta east of San Francisco, authorities obtained an additional 500 megawatts.

Demand on the grid reached 31,600 megawatts Thursday evening, nearly the maximum available. Reserves dipped below 1,000 megawatts, prompting the alert. One megawatt powers 1,000 homes.

'We're simply not ready for deregulation'

Gov. Gray Davis said problems stem in part from flaws in California's newly deregulated electricity system, including huge increases in the cost of wholesale power.

"We're simply not ready for deregulation in California," the governor said.

Under a 1996 law, California's investor-owned monopoly utilities were required to sell off their power-generating assets, such as dams and power plants, and purchase electricity on the open market.

The goal was to lower prices to consumers through a competitive market, but skyrocketing energy costs sent market prices sharply higher.

Deregulation's political popularity during the last decade made power plant builders wary of building in the state. As a result, electricity supplies remained stagnant at a time when the state's population exploded and high-tech companies boomed.

Eight new plants have been licensed since 1998, but the soonest any will begin operation is next summer. State officials believe costs will ease as that new energy becomes available.

The California Public Utilities Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are investigating the companies that generate the state's electricity supply.

"This is absolutely a problem of deregulation," said Mindy Spatt, a spokeswoman for the Utility Reform Network. "When we deregulated, theoretically we were going to get lower prices and competition that would make service more reliable. Instead, we've gotten higher prices and less reliable service."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Reliant Energy
California Energy Commission
California Public Utilities Commission
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The California Independent System Operator (ISO)
Utilities Reform Network

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