Blackout season in California has begun:
quote.bloomberg.com
05/07 20:25
California Blackouts Ordered as Power Reserve Falls
(Update2)
By Daniel Taub
Folsom, California, May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Rolling blackouts were ordered
throughout California after electricity reserves dropped below 1.5 percent because
of warmer weather and reduced supply, the state's power-system manager said.
About 300 megawatts of power will be saved through blackouts, the California
Independent System Operator said. PG&E Corp., owner of the state's largest
utility, said it was ordered to cut power to 54,000 customers. A megawatt is
enough power to light 750 typical California homes.
Millions of Californians lost electricity for periods of an hour or more during four
days of rolling blackouts this year. Blackouts last hit the state in March. During
rolling blackouts, power cuts rotate among groups of customers to prevent a
failure of the state's 32,000-mile power-transmission system.
``We're looking for all the resources we can identify,'' said Lorie O'Donley, a
spokeswoman for the Independent System Operator.
Inland temperatures were expected to reach the low 90s today, raising demand
for electricity to run air conditioners, the Folsom, California-based agency said.
Plants generating 12,500 megawatts of electricity, including four nuclear plants,
are down because of repairs or malfunctions.
Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric, California's third- largest
investor-owned electric utility, cut 22 megawatts of electricity, spokesman Doug
Kline said. Officials with Edison International's Southern California Edison, the
state's No. 2 utility, weren't immediately able to comment.
The duration and size of the blackouts ``will be evaluated on an hourly basis,'' the
ISO said. |
