To: bobby beara who wrote (2815 ) 12/21/2000 2:49:16 PM From: John Pitera Read Replies (1) | Respond to Edison Relief Filing Is Evidence California Utility Is Near DefaultCalifornia's two biggest utilities said they are nearly out of money and may be unable to continue purchasing power, further jeopardizing the reliability of electricity supplies for most residents and businesses in the state."has virtually exhausted its financial resources." Southern California Edison Co. said it doesn't have the money to pay its January power bill and has "no realistic alternative but to seek the protection of the bankruptcy court" unless it gets immediate relief from the high wholesale electricity prices that have plagued California since June. come due on Jan. 4, generators that have supplied power to California's deregulated market will have to absorb the loss. That increases the risk that generators won't supply as much power to California as it requires.emergency powers conferred last week by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. Those powers enable the ISO to order generators to provide power even though they aren't being fully paid. will "drop deeply into speculative grade." Such a move into junk-bond status would make it unlikely that either utility would be able to borrow the money needed to pay their bills. It would also put them in default on the covenants of existing loans, which would accelerate the slide toward insolvency."to head off any overall disaster or crisis that could easily occur," said Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer, who headed the meeting attended by five governors. The governors agreed to focus on ways to conserve electricity and set a week from Thursday as a date for coming up with a "coordinated conservation strategy." He said several states, including California, Oregon and Washington, have shown that public calls for conservation can reduce demand.
